However, Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed felt the ICC had acted too quickly in their decision.

BBC: Pakistan counts cost of Cup shift

The speaker is likely to be a Sunni, perhaps the current interim president, Ghazi al-Yawar.

ECONOMIST: Iraq

Team manager Yawar Saeed plans to use their current visit to do what he can to re-assure Australian officials.

BBC: Pakistan's dual mission

Attacking Fallujah's insurgents is like shooting at a fly that has landed on your horse's head, says Mr Yawar: you will miss the fly but kill your horse.

ECONOMIST: Winning in Fallujah, losing elsewhere? | The

The PCB chief was speaking at a news conference in Lahore, Pakistan, but team manager Yawar Saeed revealed on Thursday that he had not been informed about Riaz's forthcoming police interview.

BBC: Police to question Pakistan bowler Wahab Riaz next week

But the interim president, Ghazi al-Yawar, sheikh of a predominantly Sunni Arab tribe, says that attacking Fallujah's insurgents is like shooting at a fly that has landed on your horse's head: you'll miss the fly but kill your horse.

ECONOMIST: Iraq

Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed said Riaz spent about 30 minutes with officers, while the PCB claimed the fast bowler, who remains a member of the tour squad, was "unconditionally released" after being quizzed at Kilburn Police Station in north London.

BBC: Pakistan's Butt, Amir and Asif to contest ICC charges

In a BBC interview on Wednesday, Kofi Annan, the United Nations' secretary-general, reiterated his worries that the continuing violence could make it impossible to conduct the elections. (He also annoyed America and its allies by asserting that the Iraq invasion had been illegal.) Earlier in the week, Iraq's interim president, Ghazi al-Yawar, had said that the elections should go ahead unless the UN insisted otherwise.

ECONOMIST: Security first, sewers later | The