"We still have two months. We should still be consistent, and we should keep the schedule according to what it is. That's January 30," Yawar told NBC television in an interview Sunday.
More than 90 people were killed in a string of insurgent attacks on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, shattering a period of relative calm that followed US-led assaults on Sunni Muslim rebel-held cities.
Most were members of Iraqi security forces, US-led forces and their allies.
Violence flared again Monday, with four Iraqis killed in three incidents around Iraq, including a nine-year-old girl slain in an attack on police in the town of Baquba.
As a senior UN official warned elections could not be held in the current climate of violence, backing calls by Sunni Muslim politicians in Iraq, Yawar said there was no "sacred date" for the poll, but delaying it would only make things worse.
"After reviewing the situation, I think the worst thing to do is to postpone elections. This will give a tactical victory to the insurgents, to the forces of darkness," Yawar said.
"We are asking the United Nations (news - web sites), the whole international community, to help us.
"We do not think that postponing elections or delaying it will solve the problem. Actually, it will prolong the agony for Iraqis, and you will have more resentment in the Iraqi society."
The insurgency is not supported by the Iraqi people, Yawar insisted, despite its evident robustness.
"It's strong without the support of Iraqi people," he said.
"People are passive, yes, because they have been held helpless by these people. It's like hoodlums where they frighten people."
"A silent majority" still needs to be coaxed "to come out of the shell of the totalitarian regimes and the oppression of the past," he argued.
"We are not going to go back to the time of the pre-war Iraq after all," he said.
"With all of the ups and downs, it's much better without having the old regime back."
Asked what he would tell Bush, Yawar said: "I will tell him, 'Thank you very much, Mr President, for all of the help that we've had in the past.' I will tell him that we in Iraq are determined to build our own democracy, own Iraqi-style democracy.
But also, we want you to help us empowering more Iraqis to assume responsibility, especially in the security forces arena."
By early January, the United States is to increase the number of troops to about 150,000 from 138,000, the highest number since Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq more than 18 months ago.
The aim is to ensure the election process runs smoothly.
Lakhdar Brahimi, a special advisor to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) and until recently UN envoy in Iraq, said the January 30 vote could only take place "if first and foremost security improves."
The highly-respected Brahimi told the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad this weekend that if the elections were to take place in Iraq's secure areas it would exclude the Sunni minority living in more tense regions.
"The situation does not work. We have to find something which does. If we let the situation get even worse, it will just become more dangerous."
Iraqi parties campaigning for a delay also warned that the results could be contested if the elections go ahead without a prior reduction in violence.
Jordan's King Abdullah II also meets with Bush at the White House Monday for talks on the state of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the situation in Iraq.
