Powell confident elections will occur

But officials say violence may prevent voting in some regions of Iraq

Crawford, Texas ? Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged Sunday that the situation in Iraq is “getting worse,” but he insisted that hostile areas can be quelled to allow elections in January throughout the country.

Both Powell and Gen. John Abizaid, in charge of the U.S. Central Command, said tough military action would be needed in some regions, particularly the Sunni triangle, to ensure the stability of the election process.

But in appearances on Sunday news shows, Powell and Abizaid disagreed whether elections could be held in all areas of the strife-torn country. Allies of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry on Sunday questioned whether the balloting could be considered legitimate if it bypassed some regions.

Powell, in an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” acknowledged that violence among insurgents is worsening and said it was because of the prospect of upcoming elections.

“They do not want the Iraqi people to vote for their own leaders in a free, democratic election,” Powell said of the insurgent forces. “And because it’s getting worse, we will have to increase our efforts to defeat it, not walk away and pray and hope for something else to happen.”

With a recent Time magazine poll showing 55 percent of voters believe the situation in Iraq is worse than described by President Bush, Abizaid acknowledged “it’s a hard fight” but added that “the constant drumbeat in Washington of a war that is being lost, that can’t be won, of a resistance that is out of control, simply do not square with the facts on the ground.”

Abizaid, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” dismissed as “overly pessimistic” a National Intelligence Estimate for the president that in late July suggested a bleak future for Iraq, with civil war as a worst-case scenario and “tenuous stability” in the country as the best case.

“I’m very confident that by the time the January elections roll around, we’ll be in good shape,” Abizaid said.

The acknowledgment of difficult times ahead in Iraq comes just days after Iyad Allawi, the prime minister for Iraq’s interim government, downplayed increasing violence and spoke of positive change in an appearance before Congress and in a White House news conference with President Bush.

Crawford, Texas (ap) — The White House says it considered secretly backing pro-U.S. candidates in the upcoming Iraqi election, but decided against it even though the Bush administration suspects other nations are working to influence the voting.”There have been and will continue to be concerns about efforts by outsiders to influence the outcome of the Iraqi elections, including money flowing from Iran,” White House spokesman Allen Abney said Sunday.”This raises concerns about whether there will be a level playing field for the Iraqi election. The situation has posed difficult dilemmas about what action, if any, the U.S. should take in response,” he said.”And in the final analysis, we have adopted a policy that we will not try to influence the outcome of the upcoming Iraqi election by covertly helping individual candidates for office.”

On Sunday, Powell and Abizaid each offered different explanations of the U.S. goal for Iraqi elections.

Abizaid said the aim was for elections “to be held in the vast majority of the country.”

“I don’t think we’ll ever achieve perfection,” Abizaid said. “And when we look for perfection in a combat zone, we’re going to be sadly disappointed.”

But Powell said, “Right now, our goal is, and I think it’s an achievable goal, to have full, free, fair elections across the whole country.”

Powell said the U.S.-led coalition needed to “make sure that we bring the Sunni triangle under control” to allow for elections across Iraq.

Powell also told CNN that action would be taken against the “no-go zones” — hostile areas largely avoided by U.S.-led forces.