SG: Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen.

I know you are all anxious to know when I will name my Special Representative. I will do it shortly, and he will go to Iraq as soon as it is possible, but I am not in a position to announce it now but I will do it very shortly.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, is this some more than a face-saving role for the United Nations?

SG: I think the Resolution does give a role to the United Nations. Obviously, the occupying power has a responsibility for the welfare and effective administration of the territory, and we will have to work with them and the Iraqi people in implementing the mandate that we have been given and we hope that we will be able to work in partnership for the benefit of the Iraqi people and implement the tasks that we have been given.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, what do you make of the absence for the second time in a row of Syria in such a crucial vote?

SG: Well, I think that is a question for the Syrian delegation to answer.

Q: Sir, Sir, the Syrian delegation has explained, I spoke to the Syrian delegation. They explained that they asked for some more time for the Damascus government to give them instructions and that the Security Council has denied them such extra time. Do you have any comment?

SG:: Well, I think the Security Council is the master of its own deliberations, and if they decided to press ahead with a vote today, and the majority of them went along, it is the Council's prerogative.

Q: Are you uncomfortable with what this Resolution does, which basically authorizes occupation after a war which was not sanctioned by the United Nations. Are you uncomfortable with this –although you are faced with a reality here –and uncomfortable with the precedent that it may set?

SG: I think the Resolution gives the international community a legal basis for its activities in Iraq. As you saw today the Council members voted unanimously for it. We have been given specific assignments and the Council has provided a legal basis and we will go ahead and do our work.

Q: Is there any competition between the occupied people and the United Nations?

SG: I beg your pardon, competition?

Q: Is there competition in solving the Iraqi issue?

SG: I hope there is no competition as such. I think if we all focus on the interests of the Iraqi people, and work and support them in their efforts to establish a stable and a peaceful government, a government and a nation that will be at peace with its neighbours, we have a lot to do. I think the focus should be on support for the Iraqi population and for Iraq, not competition amongst ourselves as to who does what.

Q: You yourself described the war as illegal. Now that you have this Resolution, have you started a clean slate now?

SG: I think what the discussions have been in the past few weeks and today is for us to move forward and tackle the issues that we have to on the ground in Iraq, and I think everyone is looking forward and we should focus on that and I think as I have indicated the Resolution does provide a legal basis and I don't want to get into the debate of is this ex post facto legitimisation of what is happening. We do have a legal basis to move forward.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, wouldn't you have preferred this Resolution today to be legitimising the UN running Iraq?

SG: I think whatever my preferences or other preferences might have been, this is the product of a compromise and in a compromise noone gets all that they want, and we do have a compromise solution and we have to work with it.

Q: Mr. Secretary, do you think that the Resolution will give your Representative enough power to influence the political process in establishing a sovereign Iraqi power?

SG: First of all let me say that everyone has insisted that, as we move forward, Iraqis must be responsible for their own destiny. They must be in charge of their own political future and also be responsible for their natural resources, so really we hope to work with the Iraqis and the coalition authority to establish a government. And I am sure the Representative will be able to work with the Iraqis and also with the Authority.