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General says rebels can be quelled by '05

TIKRIT, Iraq - A senior U.S. commander said Wednesday that recent attacks in Iraq are the work of groups seeking to sabotage - or gain leverage in - a future independent Iraqi government that is due to take power by July.

Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of the Army's 4th Infantry Division, also predicted that coalition forces would be able to crush the insurgency within a year, despite continued American losses since the Dec. 13 capture of Saddam Hussein.

"There are ethnic issues. People are now positioning themselves to see what their role is in the next government, and they are doing it by force," Odierno said after a tour of Tikrit, Hussein's hometown.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is sticking to its timetable for Iraq self-rule by July 1, but U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday that the deadline might have to be reconsidered to forge an agreement on a provisional government.

Asserting "the U.N. has a role to play in Iraq," Annan said he would send a mission as soon as its safety could be assured, but was not ready to re-establish a U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.

"We are not going to go back permanently now," Annan said in New York.