BAGHDAD, Feb. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- The interim Iraqi Governing Council(IGC) has receded from supporting an American plan to choose a transitional government as it wants to stay active till elections are organized, local newspaper Al Sharq Al Awsat reported Wednesday.

    Most of the IGC members have stopped supporting the US suggestion of holding regional caucuses as they believed the Americans intended to postpone the power transfer to Iraqis, the report said.

    Ghazi Al Yawir, an IGC member, was quoted as saying that the American suggestion "is a dead idea."

    Local observers considered this attitude of the IGC a great challenge for the American occupation authority.

    Some of the IGC members are prominent political leaders in Iraq and their refusal represents a new embarrassment for the US government, they said.

    The IGC is trying to seek ways to coordinate with the demands ofGreat Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, the Iraqi Shiite leader who insistson choosing a government through direct and free elections in all parts of Iraq before the power transfer on June 30. Enditem