US Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Sunday that organising Iraqi elections in January could prove difficult because of spiralling violence in the country, where he acknowledged the insurgency was "getting worse."
"Yes, it's getting worse," Powell told ABC television.
"And the reason it's getting worse is that they are determined to disrupt the election. They do not want the Iraqi people to vote for their own leaders in a free, democratic elections."
"Right now our goal is, and I think it's an achievable goal, is to have full, free and fair elections across the whole country."
The top US military commander in the region, General John Abizaid also warned that "we will fight our way through elections" in Iraq, and that he cannot predict that the entire country would be able to vote.
Their remarks stood in sharp contrast to the optimistic scenario painted by US President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who vowed last week that elections would go ahead and insisted last week that "we are succeeding in Iraq."
Powell told CNN television's "Late Edition" that: "There will be polling stations that are shot at. There will be insurgents who will still be out there who will try to keep people from voting."
Still, he said, "I think what we have to keep shooting for, and what is achievable, is to give everybody the opportunity to vote in the upcoming election, to make the election fully credible, and something that will stand the test of the international community's examination."
His remarks came after Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday told a congressional committee "so be it," if unrest prevents elections from being held in parts of Iraq.
"You have an election that's not quite perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
But Powell said Sunday that "it has to be seen as a comprehensive, full, free and fair election in order to get the kind of credibility that we want it to have."
Abizaid said he believed that "elections will occur in the vast majority of the country."
Powell said that an international conference on Iraq could take place in late October or early November in a city in the region, possibly Amman or Cairo, to build support for the country.
Powell said the list of participants could include Iraq's immediate neighbours as well as several industrialised nations.
Aside from the conference, Powell said talks were underway on securing the Iraqi-Syrian border, bringing together the United States and the two neighbours.
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