Politics/ a meeting with the UN Assembly

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The United States has been quietly pressing for the meeting this week at the UN General Assembly, it said, citing US officials and Arab and European diplomats.

The purpose of the meeting would be to lend legitimacy to Iraqi elections scheduled for January, to enlist participation by dissidents and to persuade neighboring countries not to interfere in the process, the paper said.

Arab and European officials speaking anonymously said US politics were clearly playing a role in US endorsement of the conference plan. The US election takes place November 2. President George W. Bush’s Democratic rival John Kerry has said that as president he would convene an international conference to enlist more international help in Iraq.

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