BAGHDAD, Jan. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Four out of 18 Iraqi provinces would be insecure for broad participation in the landmark elections due on Jan. 30, Iraqi State Minister for Provincial Affairs WaelAbdul Latif said on Saturday.

    "We are in talks with tribal chiefs, political parties and local leaders to get the greatest participation possible in the troublesome governorates," Abdul Latif told a press conference. He said efforts were being taken to secure a better turnout int he four provinces, which are in danger of being derailed from the US-sponsored political process.

    Voters in Anbar, which includes previously rebellion town of Fallujah, and Nineveh, home to Iraq's third largest city of Mosul will be allowed to cast their votes on election day inside the two provinces but no where else, said the minister. At Saturday's press conference, Abdul Hussein Hendawi, the head of Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission, said the turnout would drop to 12.6 million from 14.2 million if excluding Anbar and Nineveh.

    Abdul Latif said the government led by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi will provide adequate security for voters despite mounting threats from insurgents to attack polling centers." The security plan covers all provinces, all neighborhoods and all voting centres," he stressed.

    While Allawi administration insisted on the schedule, many Sunni groups have called for boycott, mocking the elections "mere another rplay under US occupation."

    Influenced by the call for boycotting, the biggest Sunni political movement Iraqi Islamic Party has announced to withdraw its list of candidates on condition that the voting is postponed for six months.

    The party leader Muhsin Hamid told Xinhua that his main concern was that "there would be at least one-third of Iraqi population unable to cast their votes" because of insecurity and lack of election awareness.

    Hamid cautioned that five or six governorates would be absent in the coming elections.

    The polls on Jan. 30 will pick a 275-member national assembly,which in turn generates a transitional government and writes thepermanent constitution. Enditem