BAGHDAD, Iraq - More Iraqi interim government officials are calling for the postponement of Jan. 30 elections to ensure a higher Sunni voter turnout, a sign that a campaign of violence might be taking its toll on Iraqi resolve. The country's electoral commission, however, insists that voting take place as scheduled.

Sunni Arab clerics have called for a boycott and Iraq's largest Sunni political party announced it was pulling out of the race because of poor security that has seen insurgents kill scores of Iraqi security forces, as well as several election officials, in recent weeks.

Today, gunmen killed the governor of the Baghdad province, Ali al-Haidari, and six of his bodyguards in an ambush of his convoy in the Iraqi capital, officials said. Al-Haidari was the highest-ranking official killed since the former president of the now defunct Governing Council, Abdel-Zahraa Othman, was assassinated in May.

Several proposals have been floated lately to counter the threat of a low Sunni turnout that would undermine the legitimacy of the vote - the country's first free elections since the monarchy was toppled in 1958. Iraqis are to choose a legislative assembly to draft a constitution.

Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan told reporters in Cairo Monday that he has asked Egypt to try to persuade the Sunnis to participate in the elections.

"And if they agreed, then we could postpone the date to let all Iraqis go to the polls in one day," he said.

It is not clear, however, who the Egyptians would negotiate with - or if they would in fact take up the offer - in the absence of a definitive Sunni leadership in Iraq that parallels the hierarchal Shiite religious authority. The Egyptian government, known for its crackdown on its own Muslim Brotherhood movement, is also likely to refuse to hold talks with a party like the Iraqi Islamic Party that withdrew from the race to convince it to reverse its decision.

Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations suggested the election could be delayed by two or three weeks. In an opinion piece in The Washington Post last week, Samir al-Sumaidaie proposed that idea and a host of others, including reserving some seats for groups who do poorly if their supporters don't vote - a clear reference to the Sunnis.