U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Sunday he would decide in the next day or so if he would send a mission to Iraq to study the feasibility of holding early elections.

"I would expect to make a decision in the next day or so," Annan told Swedish television in an interview, a day before he is to speak at an international conference on preventing genocide in Stockholm.

He said he had been asked to send such a team at a meeting last Monday with the U.S. governor of Iraq Paul Bremer and Governing Council President Adnan Pachachi.

The team's job would be to determine if elections could be organized between now and the end of June so a provisional national assembly and government could be chosen in time for the June 30 transfer of political power to Iraqis.

The team would also recommend alternatives to the complicated U.S. plan of election caucuses, which most experts say has to be changed.

Annan said that the United Nations would be ready to set up an international tribunal for the trial of Saddam Hussein, if it were asked by the U.S.-led coalition, which toppled the former Iraqi president last year.

"We have not been asked to play a role yet. But if we were asked, I'm sure that we are capable of playing a role. We have a vast experience in this," Annan said.

Diplomats at the United Nations said earlier on Sunday that Annan may not give details on when the electoral team, expected to leave next month, would go to Baghdad or who would lead it.

Instead, the secretary-general probably would link the departure of the team to a U.N. security assessment in Iraq, required since the attack on U.N. headquarters in Baghdad on August 19 that killed 22 people.

SHI'ITE CLERIC WANTS FULL-SCALE ELECTION

Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, wants a full-scale election, which would likely favor Shi'ites, who make up an estimated 60 percent of Iraq's 25 million people.

Sistani's ally, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, a member of the Governing Council, said that less than a perfect election would be better than ignoring the popular vote.

"It can be done, if we want it and make the effort. I believe they can be run," Hakim told Reuters at the weekend.

Hakim has said previously Shi'ites might abide by a U.N. decision, a key reason why the Bush administration, which had scorned the world body, now wants Annan to give the process legitimacy.

But U.N. officials have been as dubious as the United States about direct elections, not just because of the short time left to organize them, but because of the violent atmosphere, which tends to favor extremists.

A phased transition to self-rule would allow for time to build institutions, form political parties, and create alliances that cut across religious groupings.

The United States wants Lakhdar Brahimi, the former Algerian foreign minister who just finished a two-year stint as chief U.N. envoy in Afghanistan, to play a leading role.

But Brahimi, now a senior adviser to Annan, has resisted going to Baghdad to lead the team, negotiate with Sistani's allies after an initial report from the U.N. electoral experts, or to replace Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head of the U.N. mission killed in the August 19 bombing.

So far Brahimi, 70, according to friends, does not want any part of the assignment and is skeptical about the entire process. But as one ally said, "The pressure is incredible."

He was called to the White House on Thursday for talks with U.S. President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

The current U.S. proposal envisages a complicated selection process for a series of caucuses in 18 provinces, whose delegates would then select representatives for a national assembly. That body would pick a provisional cabinet and head of state.

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