Straw Urges U.N. on Iraq Election Dispute

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urged the United Nations to return to Iraq to help resolve a dispute over elections, as global powerbrokers opened their annual talkfest in this snowy Alpine resort Wednesday.

Straw defended the U.S.-led coalition’s decision to go to war in Iraq and lobbied for international support in that country’s postwar rebuilding at the World Economic Forum, where Iraq weighed heavily for a second year.

“I am in no doubt that if we had sat on our hands and not acted, the world would be today a much more dangerous place,” he told a packed early session.

Straw expressed hope that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan – due in Davos on Thursday – would support an American and Iraqi request for U.N. experts to assess whether Iraq could hold elections in time for a transitional government to take over July 1.

“If there were to be a re-engagement of the U.N. and early appointment of (a) highly qualified special representative, that could only assist in this process,” Straw said.

U.N. staff pulled out of Iraq in October following two deadly bombings at U.N. headquarters there, and Annan says security remains a key concern.

Iraq’s most prominent Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, has demanded direct elections, but U.S. and Iraqi officials want to use caucuses, saying early elections are not feasible.

Straw testily rejected suggestions that the caucus plan lacked “legitimacy.”

“It’s a very easy word to mouth,” he said, challenging critics “to say what they would do next which is different but which could practically be put on the ground without causing greater problems than we have today.”

L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. official in Iraq, was to discuss “next steps for Iraq” on Friday, one of 250 panels planned over five days on topics ranging from “the pension time bomb” to “how to be hip.”

The forum officially opens Wednesday evening with an address by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who was also holding a private session with Straw.

Straw said they would follow up on his October visit to Tehran – with his French and German counterparts – to broker an agreement on U.N. access to Iran’s nuclear sites, among other issues.

Other headliners among this year’s 2,100 attendees include U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

The confab got under way with debates on topics ranging from what constitutes victory in the war on terror to which way the global recovery would go in 2004 – all despite an increasingly heavy blanket of snow.

“I have fallen over only once, but it kind of adds something,” said Richard Corriette, a top official from the express delivery firm DHL, who was at his second forum. “I guess because it’s snowing, people actually come inside and concentrate on what they are trying to do.”

Many were hoping that the U.S. economy would boost a global recovery in 2004.

“I’m bullish about the U.S. economy and because the U.S. is the locomotive of the world, I’m bullish about the world economy,” said Jacob Frenkel, chairman of Merrill Lynch International in London.

Others seemed less sure.

“I would like the economy to be stronger than I began the meeting with,” said Cisco Systems chief John Chambers.

With accounting scandals consuming European firms such as Italy’s Parmalat and Switzerland’s Adecco, corporate governance was heavy on the agenda yet again.

Nissan President Carlos Ghosn insisted such cases were still the exception.

“They are grave, they are obviously dramatic cases, but let’s not generalize on everything that is taking place in the business world,” he said.

Billionaire George Soros, a forum regular, was keeping a lower than usual profile, forgoing his usual news conference and declining interview requests. “I don’t know yet,” he told The Associated Press when asked what he expected from this year’s meeting.

Political negotiations also can take place.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom will share a platform with Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath to discuss peace moves. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is to speak on efforts to end nuclear-armed tensions with rival India. In the audience will be Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha.

The presence of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou leaves open the chance for discussions on differences over divided Cyprus.

Protesters who accuse the forum of being elitist and imperialist said they would try to stop leaders from traveling up the Alps to Davos. Activists claimed to have blocked the forum’s welcome desk at Zurich airport and stopped traffic on a Zurich bridge, but neither could be immediately confirmed.

More demonstrations were planned for Saturday, when Cheney is to speak.

Former U.S. president and luncheon speaker Bill Clinton said he respected the feelings of anti-globalization activists.

“I think a lot of their criticisms are valid,” he said. “But they want to take us back to a time that never was, on a journey that cannot be effective.”

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WEF official site: http://www.weforum.org