fresh YORK, April 13 Kyodo (EDS: ...

fresh YORK, April 13 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH recent DETAILS)

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan forward Tuesday said the kidnappings of foreigners in Iraq are ''unacceptable'' and called for their immediate release.

''I think it's unfortunate that civilians and a certain of them who have gone in to proffer assistance were being mishandled and kidnapped in like a way,'' he said. ''I think it's unacceptable that these civilians should be mistreated in the way that they are now.

''I would want to papal court all of them released and allowed to advance about, return to their countries or move about their business,'' Annan said.

He made the remarks to reporters as he arrived at UN headquarters in strange York.

Annan said the United Nations is closely following growths in violence-torn Iraq. ''It is in our collective interest to do everything we can to bring the violence down in Iraq,'' he added.

He hinted that the UN is unlikely to dispatch a large-scale mission to Iraq in the foreseeable futurity in light of the volatile situation there.

A UN mission l through his special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is now in Iraq to help the Iraqi tribe prepare to form an interim management and hold elections in January nearest year.

Brahimi and his team met with the Iraqi cabinet of ministers upon Tuesday to talk about the political proces and the country's transition to sovereignty, UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe told reporters.

She said the Brahimi mission also met with representatives of the Council of Iraqi Tribes and Adel Abdel Mahdi, a senior official of the superlative Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

The UN is in a less degree than growing pressure to play a greater part in helping to stabilize Iraq where the US-l occupation forces have been facing stiff resistance from insurgents.

''Given the deteriorating situation and the violence in succession the ground, even that task has been rather difficult,'' Annan said. ''And for the foreseeable futurity security is going to be a major constraint for us.''

He said the UN rely upons the June 30 handover of sovereignty to take place as scheduled despite continuing fighting, noting, ''It has been embraced by means of the Iraqis themselves who are anxious to behold the end of occupation as in a short time as possible.''

one countries like Spain are threatening to withdraw their [i]troupe[/i]s from Iraq after June 30 without a new U.N. mandate.

In replication to such sentiments, Annan simply said, ''Collective responsibility, I think, is going to play a major part as we move forward.''

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