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NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. military and civilian officials have identified 20 to 30 towns and cities in Iraq that must be pacified before nationwide elections can be held in January, The New York Times reported Friday.

Recent operations to stamp out unrest in Tal Afar, Samarra and the area south of Baghdad are the first signs of a new, six-pronged strategy for Iraq that has been approved at the highest levels of the Bush administration, the Times said.

Places specifically being looked at, according to unnamed administration officials, include Falluja, Ramadi and the northern Babil Province.

"What you have here is a new approach," a senior administration official said.

"We have to work Samarra. We have to work Ramadi. We've done our bit in Samarra. Now we're consolidating and cleaning up. We're doing kinetic strikes in Falluja."

Civilians involved in the process also told the Times that the new approach was formulated in part to counter criticism from President Bush's Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, that the administration has no plan for Iraq.



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