sisyphusshrugged | the terrorists win

Iraq concedes that anyone the insurgents don't want to vote won't get to vote in the upcoming elections, as Mr. Rumsfeld said and Mr. Allawi either does or doesn't agree to and Mr. Armitage denied

Iraq's vice president conceded Saturday that voting might not be possible in all parts of the country when elections are held in in January.

Vice President Barham Saleh told The Associated Press that authorities are adamant that insurgents will not derail efforts to hold elections on time.

"Hypothetically, if you have a location in which the security situation is not conducive to holding elections ... then you end up with the question, Shall we delay or hold the entire process hostage to that particular district? " he said during an interview in his Baghdad office. "That will be a bridge that we will have to cross when we come to it."

The issue of bypassing the vote in some areas where violence is heaviest has been debated in recent days.

Prime Minister Ayad Allawi insisted that the vote will be held throughout the country amid concern that some areas in Iraq may be inaccessible to voters due to the insurgency.

But U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday and again Friday that if insurgents prevent Iraqis from voting in some areas, a partial vote would be better than none at all.

However, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told Congress Friday that elections must be held throughout the country, including areas gripped by violence.

A surge of violence, kidnappings and beheadings, and the inability of U.S.-led forces to secure volatile parts of the country that are controlled by insurgents, such as Fallujah, have raised doubts about the timing of the vote.

"This is about the constitution and any area that will hold out and create trouble, they risk being isolated and lose their voice," said Saleh, a Kurd and a former prime minister in the Kurdish province of Sulaymaniyah.