The government has welcomed news that Iraqi elections will go ahead on January 30.

Recent military operations in Fallujah, which led to the Black Watch regiment being controversially redeployed to central Iraq, have been aimed at improving security ahead of the elections.

A slip in the timetable would have proved embarrassing to ministers, who have cited the increasing transfer of responsibility to a democratically elected government as part of their "exit strategy" following the war.

Any delay would also have indicated that the campaign by insurgents to destabilise the country was proving successful.

Confirmation that the elections will now go ahead on January 30 came from the Electoral Commission in Baghdad.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the arrangements were "a matter for the transitional government".

She added that the transitional law "requires an election by no later than that date, so it fits with that timetable".

Red Cross

Meanwhile, the government has continued to come under fire for its decision to back the US-led war.

Over the weekend the International Committee of the Red Cross took the unusual step of condemning the "utter contempt for humanity" shown by both sides in the war.

"As hostilities continue in Fallujah and elsewhere, every day seems to bring news of yet another act of utter contempt for the most basic tenet of humanity," said Pierre Kraehenbuhl, the ICRC's director of operations.

"Like any other armed conflict, this one is subject to limits, and they must be respected at all times."

And SNP leader Alex Salmond slammed the government's failure to provide precise information about civilian casualties.

"The government's moral ambivalence to the war in Iraq and its impact on the civilian population has been astonishing," he said.

"The prime minister has abdicated all sense of moral responsibility over this illegal and unnecessary war, the cost of which has been appalling."