2 Americans, Briton taken hostage

The UN has advised Iraq on the polls, which are crucial to US plans to establish a legitimate government able to run its own security without large numbers of US troops and stabilise a nation with a huge share of the world’s oil. Annan’s charge that the US-led invasion was illegal because it violated the UN charter was rejected by Australia.

The US Embassy named the two kidnapped Americans as Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong but did not give their home towns. The British Embassy said no details on the Briton would be released until his family had been informed. The trio worked for GSCS, a UAE-based firm that has won building contracts in Iraq. Meanwhile, the body of a man believed to be a Westerner was found on Thursday near Samarra, Iraqi police said. Police said the corpse was bloated, suggesting the person had been dead for some time.

A US Intelligence report prepared for Bush in July offered a gloomy outlook for Iraq through to the end of 2005, US officials said. The National Intelligence Estimate, a compilation of views from various intelligence agencies, predicted three possible scenarios ranging from a tenuous stability to political fragmentation to the most negative assessment of civil war, an official said on condition of anonymity. ‘‘There doesn’t seem to be much optimism,’’ the official said. —(Reuters)