Iraqi Prime Minister Mr Iyad Allawi said this evening elections would be held as planned in January despite a surge in violence across the country.
"We definitely are going to stick to the timetable of elections in January next year," Mr Allawi told a news conference after talks in London with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Bombings, shootings, kidnappings and beheadings in the last two weeks have claimed the lives of hundreds of people in Iraq and raised doubts elections can go ahead on schedule.
A militant group has threatened to kill two American and a British hostage tomorrow, and another group threatened to kill 10 workers from a US-Turkish firm unless their demands are met.
Abductions of Westerners have forced many foreign firms in Iraq to scale back their operations or pull out.
An Iraqi Islamist group said it had beheaded three members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which cooperates with Iraq's interim, US-backed government.
An Internet video tape from the Army of Ansar al-Sunna appeared to show the heads of three young men being severed and placed on their bodies.
Mr Blair and Mr Allawi said they were doing all they could to resolve the latest Western kidnappings.
"I don't think there is anything more I can or should say at this stage," Mr Blair told the news conference.