The world's main powers and Middle East countries put on a rare show of unity to support January elections in Iraq that UN chief Kofi Annan termed "critical" to quell rampant violence.
The stand was enshrined Tuesday in a joint declaration approved by the United States, France and other Western states, the interim government in Iraq, as well as Iran, Turkey, several Arab countries, China and Russia at the close of a two-day international conference in this Red Sea resort.
"We must all help" in Iraq's political transition, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said as the conference ended.
"All at today's conference pledged to support national reconciliation through dialogue and democratic participation. All of us will encourage Iraqis, all Iraqis, to organize themselves and to vote in the coming elections."
Annan said the elections scheduled for January 30 were a "critical part of Iraq's transition".
He said the chronic insecurity gripping Iraq since the US-led invasion that divided the world last year was "the greatest impediment to a successful transition process."
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari insisted elections would be held on time, "whatever the situation" on the security front back home.
Foreign ministers and representatives in the conference effectively rubber-stamped a declaration whose wording had been worked out in preceeding Cairo meetings marked by much wrangling between the United States and France.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said the polls would be "difficult but possible" but that the real test (eds: correct) would come with "verification on the ground of the good intentions" stated in Sharm el-Sheikh.
The declaration stresses a UN role in preparing the elections, condemns "terrorism", kidnapping and the murder of civilians and urges cooperation or at least "non-interference" from neighbouring countries.
However, while saying the deployment of US-led troops in Iraq "is not open-ended", it gives no timetable for their withdrawal, as France and other countries had been seeking.
Iraq and neighbours Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey signed off on the document in a closed-door meeting Monday, with the Egyptian hosts turning down any last-minute amendments.
The text was put to the rest of the delegates Tuesday for approval.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi told the conference Tehran wanted to see "free and democratic elections within the envisaged time-frame" and would view any delay as "detrimental to the stability and future well-being of Iraq."
Iran, a strict Islamic republic which shares the same Shiite faith as the majority of Iraq's population, stands to see its regional status boosted with the likely electoral dominance of Iraqi Shiites.
Arab League chief Amr Mussa, meanwhile, called for the holding of a national reconciliation conference before the elections.
On the ground, a cleric from Iraq's leading Sunni authority was gunned down north of Baghdad, the second member of the influential Council of Muslim Scholars, which has called for an election boycott, to be murdered in two days.
Annan, who in September termed the invasion of Iraq "illegal," took a veiled swipe at the massive drives by US-led troops and Iraqi forces to quell the insurgency in Sunni hotspots like Fallujah.
"Iraqi authorities have the right, indeed the duty, to maintain law and order throughout their territory," he said. "However, they may wish to weigh the broader impact on the transition process of the actions they take."
Amid persistent doubts voiced by Arab states over Iraq's readiness for elections, Jordan's Foreign Minister Hani Mulki said circumstances could still force a delay.
But Powell said he heard no request for a delay.
"No delegation leader came to me in the course of the last 24 hours ... to say to me, 'You know, you really ought to work with the Iraqis to delay the election'."
Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit of Egypt said that "working for the stability of Iraq is inseparable from a just and global solution to the Palestinian question."
That parallel issue was raised on the sidelines of the conference when Powell briefed the other representatives of the so-called international quartet sponsoring the Palestinian-Israeli peace process on his talks Monday with both sides.
Annan said after the one-hour talks: "We reaffirmed our determination to work with the Palestinian leadership to support" their January 9 election to choose a successor to Yasser Arafat, who died November 11.
The quartet comprises the European Union, Russia, the United States and the United Nations.
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