UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said here Thursday that he thinks early elections in Iraq before the transfer of powers is not feasible.

    "We shared with them that... the elections can not be held before end of June," Annan told reporters after meeting with his senior envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, and 45 interested nations, or the Friends of Iraq.

    He noted that the June 30 date for hand-over must be respected and "we need to find a mechanism to create the caretaker government and then prepare the elections sometime later in the future." Enditem ¡¡