Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan may announce today he will send a team to Iraq to study the feasibility of holding elections by June 30 for a provisional Iraqi government, the UN said.

Annan said during a visit to Sweden he will make a decision probably by today on whether he will authorize a team to go to Iraq, the UN said on its Web site. The team would consider alternatives to holding elections, the UN said in its statement without elaborating.

The U.S. and members of Iraq's interim Governing Council asked Annan earlier this month to consider a UN role in determining how to hand over power from the U.S.-led authority that has run Iraq since Saddam Hussein's regime was overthrown last April after a three-week war.

Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's leading Shiite Muslim cleric, wants national elections to be held for a provisional government. The U.S. government supports selecting a provisional authority through regional caucuses, saying it isn't possible to organize polls before June 30, the deadline it set for transferring power.

Annan may announce his decision today during a visit to Paris, Agence France-Presse cited unidentified UN officials as saying yesterday in New York.

The UN last week sent a military adviser and a security coordinator to Iraq to discuss security with the U.S.-led authority and the military command, the UN said.

Security Assessment

A separate field security assessment will be needed if Annan decides to send an election team to the country, Stephane Dujarric, a UN spokesman, said at the time.

The UN withdrew most of its international aid workers from Iraq after a suicide bombing Aug. 19 at its headquarters in Baghdad killed 22 people, including UN special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Security concerns prevent the UN's immediate return to Iraq, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said earlier this month.

Sistani's calls for elections prompted demonstrations by the Shiite community in Iraq's southern cities. Shiites, who make up 60 percent of the country's 25 million people, were kept out of power under the rule of Hussein's Sunni Muslim regime.

Sistani last week indicated he will accept a compromise if Iraqis are allowed to work with the UN and both teams deem that holding elections isn't feasible, the Associated Press reported at the time, citing his aides.

Last Updated: January 27, 2004 01:55 EST