Allawi calls for supporting Iraq

The interim Iraqi prime minister Eyad Allawi has called on the international community to help Iraq.

In a speech he delivered before the UN General Assembly, Allawi said that a war between the Iraqi people and their vision for a secure and democratic future and between what he had described as extremists, terrorists and the remains of Saddam Hussein regime "are the one who are fighting this noble dream."

Earlier, Allawi held a meeting in Washington with the US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld who remarked that the US might start withdrawing some of its forces from Iraq before peace will be established in the country. This however, just 24 hours after a statement in which he said that American reinforcement should be sent to Iraq to ensure the security of the elections due on January 2005.

In the same context, the US under secretary of state Richard Armitaj said that elections in Iraq should cover the whole country.

Armitaj admitted that the elections will be "complex" but everything possible should be made to enable each Iraqi eligible to vote to cast his vote.