Baghdad, Feb. 8 (Reuters): Iraq’s US-backed governing council today met a UN team that will judge if elections demanded by the Shia majority can be held before a June 30 deadline for Washington to hand power back to Iraqis.

In a boost for Washington, the first members of a Japanese force the US has persuaded to help rebuild Iraq entered the country from Kuwait — Japan’s most controversial military deployment since World War II.

The UN delegation arrived yesterday. It is the highest-level presence for the world body in Iraq since leaving after two bomb attacks on its Iraq offices last year, including one that killed mission chief Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister and now an adviser to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, led the team but refused to hint which way it would lean on the question of an early election.

Charles visit

Prince Charles paid a surprise morale-boosting visit to British troops in Iraq today, and spoke to local officials about their concerns over the country’s future.