Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi told Iraqis in a live New Year's Eve phone-in on state television that his government would do all it could, nonetheless, to ensure voters' safety.
The reinforced US army of 150,000 and other allied troops would be on hand, along with the new Iraqi security forces, he said. Osama bin Laden and other Islamist groups have this week pledged to wreck the vote as a part of a holy war in Iraq.
Violence in the Sunni north and west may keep many in Saddam Hussein's once dominant Sunni minority away from the polls, causing complaints among their leaders that the new assembly may give exaggerated power to the Shia majority - an outcome that would complicate Washington's plans for ensuring stability.
Other tensions complicating the formation of a new government were raised when a senior leader in the autonomous Kurdish region demanded that Arabs be excluded from the vote in the northern oil capital of Kirkuk, where the Kurds accuse Saddam's regime of ethnic cleansing in a bid to ensure Arab control.
A lull in attacks after US forces stormed the Sunni bastion of Falluja, west of the capital, appears to have ended.
A note attached to the bullet-riddled body of the Guard found dead outside Falluja read: "This is the fate awaiting anyone who collaborates with the occupier."
US forces are still fighting insurgents in parts of Falluja. Iraqi officials say hardened fighters withdrew from the city before the offensive and are still operating elsewhere.
Residents of the devastated city have slowly begun going home but most who fled the fighting remain in refugee camps, exacerbating Sunni resentment of the occupation.
At Siniya, west of the oil refining town of Baiji, a suicide bomber drove his car at a checkpoint, killing five National Guards and two civilians, Guard Captain Raad Jassim told Reuters. Two other civilians were shot dead by Guards nearby when they failed to stop at a checkpoint, hospital staff said.