Washington: Iraq will hold national elections in January as planned despite the worsening security situation, the White House has said, disagreeing with European Foreign Minister Javier Solana's observation that there was little prospect of polls on time.

The US was working closely with the Iraqi forces to address the security challenge and "we fully expect it will happen in January, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday (Nov 8, 2004) in a reference to elections scheduled for January.

Solana had said yesterday that the situation in Iraq from the point of view of security does not give much of a hope that elections scheduled for January will be realised.

Asked about Solana's assessment of the situation in Iraq, McClellan said, "Well, actually, I disagree. If you look at what the United Nations election official said just last week, they talked about the efforts already underway to register people in Iraq, and they talked about the thousands of registration clerks who are in place, and the sites that are in place for people to go and register in Iraq," he said.

On the ongoing offensive on Sunni stronghold of Fallujah, he said President Bush was involved in all these matters and pointed out that it was a joint operation of the US and Iraqi forces.

He said Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had made it very clear that he was reaching out to people who wanted to participate in the political process.

"We've made progress in areas like Najaf and Samarra and other areas, and now you see the terrorists and insurgents in Fallujah have rejected a political solution," he said.