Washington: UN (United Nations) Secretary General Kofi Annan has said he was sending a team to Iraq to help set up a provisional Government there even as US President George W Bush said his country was committed to working with the world body to turn over power to the Iraqis by the June 30 deadline.

Annan said the UN team would work with the Iraqis "in finding the way forward" and would talk to as many Iraqis as possible to "steer things in the right direction".

"I believe that the stability of Iraq is in everyone's interest. The UN does have a role to play," he said at a joint appearance with Bush at the Oval Office.

Bush said their talks were wide-ranging and covered Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, the Middle East and Africa but did not elaborate on countries other than Iraq. But he said he is "upbeat and optimistic about the future of the world".

"We have got a lot of work to do in certain areas and obviously a lot of focus right now on Iraq," said Bush adding, "And I have always said that the United Nations needs to play a vital role and it is an important role.

"And we have discussed ways to make sure that by working together the Iraqi people can be free, and their country stable and prosperous and an example of democracy in the Middle East. And the United Nations does have a vital role there, and I look forward to working with the Secretary General to achieve that."

Annan confirmed that he and Bush had a very good and lengthy meeting on "a whole host of issues". Annan said, "We realize that last year we were all taken up with war, the question of war and peace in Iraq. But we have many other issues to work on together, the President and I have agreed, other areas which are important that we will be working on."

Annan pointed out that the date of June 30 has been suggested, but "there is some disagreement as to the mechanism for establishing the provisional Government."

He hoped that the team he was sending would be able to play a role in getting the Iraqis understand that if they could come to some consensus and some agreement on how to establish that government, they will be there headway.

"The CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) led by Bremer, and the Iraqi Governing Council, when they met me in New York, indicated that they would accept the conclusions of the UN team. So we do have a chance to help break the impasse which exists at the moment and move forward," Annan said.

On other issues, said Annan, "As the President indicated, we are going to work very closely together. We have had some successes and there are very positive developments around the world, which we are also going to try and build on and consolidate."