U.S. Moves to Get Anan's Backing for Iraq Transition Plan:
"The United States is eager for the international imprimatur a United Nations presence in Iraq would give the coalition forces there but has resisted Mr. Annan's repeated demands for 'clarity' over exactly what its workers would be asked to do and how safe they would be from the attacks that drove the organization out of Iraq this fall.

In actions that have alarmed Washington, individual Iraqi leaders have been seeking United Nations intervention in the current transition plan, an agreement reached on Nov. 15 that called for regional caucuses leading to the naming of a provisional Iraqi government by June 30."

His rejection of these freelance pleas came in a response to a Dec. 28 letter from Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, a leading Shiite Muslim who served as last month's rotating president of the Iraqi Governing Council.

The United States was pleased with Mr. Annan's action because of its worry over complaints in Iraq from the powerful Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, that Washington's plans for the transitional government did not insure the broad representation of Iraqis that direct elections would.…

The council has agreed to send three members — Mr. Hakim, the December president, Adnan Pachachi, the current one, and Massoud Barzani, next month's designee — but there has been no response yet from the Coalition Provisional Authority.…

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/09/international/middleeast/09CND-NATI.html