BAGHDAD, 20 February 2004 — Guerrillas killed two American soldiers yesterday in a roadside bombing west of Baghdad as the United Nations ruled out elections before the June 30 transfer of power to Iraqis.

The bombing occurred near Khaldiyah, 80 km (50 miles) west of the capital, according to the US command. Two soldiers from Task Force All-American were killed, along with at least one Iraqi, the command said. One US soldier was wounded.

Insurgents also fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an American convoy in Khaldiyah but the projectile missed, witnesses said.

Those deaths brought to 545 the number of American service members who have died since President George W. Bush launched the Iraq war on March 20. Most of the deaths have occurred after Bush declared an end to active combat on May 1.

Ruling out elections before June 30, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, however, stressed that the date for the US-led coalition to restore sovereignty to Iraq must be respected. L. Paul Bremer, the US administrator in Iraq, said earlier that changes were possible in the formula for establishing a new Iraqi government, but that the date for the coalition to hand over power remained firm. With casualties mounting in an election year, the Bush administration would like to transfer political power to the Iraqis by the end of June and shift more security responsibility to the US-trained Iraqi force.

President Bush wants to end the occupation well ahead of the November presidential election in the United States to minimize Iraq as a campaign issue.

Annan’s statement in effect endorses the Bush Administration’s idea of extending and expanding the US-picked Iraqi Governing Council so it can take interim control of the country on July 1. The Shiite majority in the country wants a firm commitment on elections. The head of Iraq’s Shiites called in a German magazine interview for a UN resolution guaranteeing elections if preparations for a vote are not wrapped up by June 30.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani warned in the weekly Der Spiegel that any delay in holding an election “must not be long.”

Asked what would happen if his conditions were not met, he said “the Iraqi people will decide.”