Mr. Annan said he would meet Iraqi representatives at a coming summit meeting of Islamic nations.

Several Iraqi representatives said they agreed with Washington that it might be premature to create a provisional government when Mr. Hussein is still in power.

The Iraqi representative said Baghdad was ready to accept the military observer force along its border with Kuwait provided for in the new peace offer.

But they convinced the other Iraqis at the table that the British should not be selecting Iraqi representatives.

Priorities for spending this money are determined in consultation with the British-American coalition and Iraqi representatives.

He cited as proof Iran's apparent rejection of direct talks with Iraqi representatives.

Iraqi representatives will also attend meetings next month of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The main burden on monitoring the election thus fell to Iraqi representatives on the ground who sent reports to Amman.

Indeed on 7 March the Iraqi permanent representative to the UN yet again, despite this evidence, claimed Iraq does not have weapons of mass destruction.

But the Iraqi representative did not say where the 10 were freed, and senior allied officials here said they had not been notified of any release.