BAGHDAD, Aug 13: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy to Iraq, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, held talks here on Friday with Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and President Ghazi al-Yawar, a spokesman said.

Mr Qazi reiterated UN calls for a peaceful settlement to fighting between the US forces and militia in the holy city of Najaf which has entered its second week, he said, reading a statement.

Asked whether the UN was working to mediate a peaceful solution to the Najaf fighting, the spokesman said only that the world body was ready to extend its good offices where they were welcome.

Welcoming Mr Qazi's arrival, he quoted Prime Minister Allawi as saying the country 'needed the UN good offices, in both the political and economic fields'. -AFP

ARRIVAL: Earlier, Mr Ashraf Jehangir Qazi arrived in Baghdad on Friday morning along with a 30-member team for his first visit to the country since his appointment last month, Masood Haider adds from New York.

As Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative, Mr Qazi will attend the national conference of representative Iraqi personalities, scheduled to start on Sunday, which is to choose a body to monitor the working of the interim government, a UN spokesman announced in New York.

The conference was postponed for two weeks at the end of last month at the suggestion of UN officials to allow time to include more participants. "We felt it was more important to have a well-organized and inclusive process rather than organizing it on time, because you may organize it on time but get it all wrong," Mr Annan said last week.