Impossible To Organize Indisputable Elections

Like everyone else with eyes, ears and a brain, Jordan's King Abdullah has saidit will be impossible to hold fair elections in Iraq in the current state of chaos.

He told the French newspaper Le Figaro that only extremists would gain if the elections went ahead in January without the security situation improving.

Correspondents say these were remarkably frank comments from a man Washington regards as one of its key allies in the Middle East.

US and interim Iraqi leaders both insist that elections will go ahead.

However, last week US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told senators it might not be possible to conduct voting in some places targeted by militants.

King Abdullah was speaking before talks in Paris on Tuesday with French President Jacques Chirac.

He said he was worried that partial elections excluding troubled areas such as Fallujah could isolate Sunni Arab Iraqis and create deeper divisions within the country.

"It seems impossible to me to organise indisputable elections in the chaos we see today," the king said.

This is yet another country who we were at least friendly with who has questioned our "resolve." At what point will Bush listen?