UN withdrawal from Iraq after terrorist attack not an option - Annan

Vowing not to let terrorists dictate United Nations policy, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today again reiterated that withdrawing the UN mission in Iraq following the massive truck-bomb attack that killed his top envoy and 22 other people in Baghdad last week is out of the question.

He said he was "intimately involved" in discussions at the UN and in foreign capitals on whether the United States-led coalition forces in Iraq would be transformed into a UN-mandated multinational force, allowing other countries to participate, internationalizing the effort, and also letting the world body play a greater role. But it would take time for these discussions to come to a conclusion.

"The option of withdrawing is not something we can consider," Mr. Annan told reporters before boarding his plane in Rio de Janeiro for New York. He was in Rio to attend memorial services for Sergio Vieira de Mello, his Special Representative for Iraq and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"The people of Iraq need us; they want us to stay. And the fanatics and the violent people who took Sergio and Nadia (Younes), Rick Hooper and other colleagues from us are not going to dictate what happens in Iraq," he said, referring to some of the other UN officials killed in Tuesday's blast.

The people of Brazil have lost a great son, he added, "but you do not mourn him alone. We've also lost a great colleague and for me personally, a very close friend, who was more like a brother."

The UN said that as of noon Saturday, the death toll in the blast, which destroyed the Canal Hotel in Baghdad where the UN was headquartered, was 23. Killed with Mr. Vieira de Mello was his Chief of Staff, Ms. Younes, a national of Egypt who had worked previously at the UN World Health Organization (WHO) as Executive Director in charge of External Relations and Governing Bodies.

Ms. Younes was a former UN Chief of Protocol, a job she assumed in 1998 but left briefly, from July 1999 to January 2001, to serve with the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), where she was in charge of the information and communication office in the Cabinet of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Bernard Kouchner.

Prior to that, she headed the Media Division in the UN Department of Public Information (DPI). She began her UN career in 1970 in the Office of General Services, and served with DPI in various capacities since 1974, initially as a press officer. In 1987 she became the Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly, and from the following year until 1993 she was Deputy Spokeswoman for the Secretary-General. She left that post to become the Director of the UN Information Centre in Rome.

Two others working directly for Mr. Vieira de Mello were also confirmed dead: Jean-Selim Kanaan of Egypt and Fiona Watson of the United Kingdom.

Also dead were five people working in the UN Office for the Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq: Reham Al-Farra of Jordan, Alyawi Bassem of Iraq, Ranillo Buenaventura of the Philippines, Reza Hosseini of Iran and Martha Teas of the United States.

Rick Hooper, another US national who was serving with the Department of Political Affairs, also was killed. Others confirmed dead were Chris Klein-Beekman of Canada, who worked for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), and Ihsan Taha Husein of Iraq, a staff member of the UN Office for Project Services.