In Iraq election news, the US rejected a proposal from the Sunni Association of Muslims Scholars that the US declare a timetable for withdrawal of its troops from Iraq. In return the leading Sunni organization would lift its boycott of the elections and would accept the resulting government as legitimate even if it was Shiite-dominated. The US spokesman said that the US was not prepared to announce a timetable for withdrawal, and that it would be premature to do so before the new elected Iraqi government was formed.