Iraq elections may slip to November: Petraeus

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraqi provincial elections, seen as a step forward in Iraq's political evolution, are now likely to take place in November instead of October, U.S. Commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, said on Thursday.

Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee that U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker now believes the November time frame is more likely as Iraqi lawmakers prepare for a final vote approving the ballot as early as next week.

The general said Iraqis still need to set up an electoral committee to oversee the balloting and to make security and other arrangements.

Up to now, the elections had been widely expected to take place in October.

"I do not believe that they will be in October," Petraeus told a hearing called to consider his White House nomination as the new head of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military interests in the Middle East and Central Asia.

"Probably November is the more accurate prediction. But again there's every intention to have elections in the fall."

Washington hopes the elections will foster national reconciliation by boosting the participation of minority Sunni Arabs in politics. Sunni Arabs, who boycotted the last local polls along with supporters of anti-U.S. Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, are under-represented in areas where they are numerically dominant.

But many fear conflict between Shi'ite factions in the south, where rival groups are vying for influence in a region home to most of Iraq's oil production.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Frances Kerry and Jackie Frank)