Details on what is being termed an “International Compact” for the country will be forthcoming, but, according to a statement released by Mr. Annan’s spokesman, the UN will be “working closely in the coming days with the Iraqi Government and the donor community – including UNDP [the UN Development Programme], other UN agencies, and the World Bank – to come up with a joint approach to support the new Government.”

Mr. Annan agreed to lend the UN’s support to the initiative after speaking by phone to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki earlier in the week and meeting Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari yesterday, according to the spokesman.

Also yesterday, he met US Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt and State Department Counsellor Philip Zelikow, who came with a message from President Bush supporting the Iraqi request for a lead UN role in the process.

Mr. Annan has designated the Deputy Secretary-General, Mark Malloch Brown, as his focal point in New York for this issue, and his Special Representative, Ashraf Qazi, in the same role on the ground in Iraq.