Iraq's deputy prime minister said Monday he was confident the Sunni Muslim community did want elections to go ahead. Barhem Saleh also insisted the debate about whether the poll should be delayed showed Iraqis were taking the issue seriously. Iraq's continuing insurgency is hampering reconstruction and threatens national elections scheduled for Jan. 30. But following talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Saleh repeated the view of Iraq's interim government that the vote must go ahead as planned, and argued that a delay would be a victory for terrorists. "I'm confident that the Sunni community wants to take part in the elections as they see that this is the way that the future of Iraq will be decided," Saleh told a brief news conference at Blair's Downing Street office. "The debate over elections and over a technical delay of the elections is a mark of the seriousness in which the Iraqis are taking the elections.""
