While coalition officials hailed the diversity of the line-up presented Tuesday by prime minister Iyad Allawi, some Iraqis were dismissive of a cabinet consisting chiefly of former exiles.

UN chief Kofi Annan could not disguise his displeasure that Brahimi was frozen out of the process by Iraqi and US officials opposed to his vision for a technocratic government.

"We all have to recognise that the process wasn't perfect," Annan said Tuesday.

Kurdish leaders took plum posts in the government and tribal leader Ghazi al-Yawar was named president after elder statesman Adnan Pachachi refused the post.

The US-backed Allawi hailed the nomination of the new government as an historic step towards sovereignty but showed no sign of rushing to ease the coalition out of Iraq.

"We Iraqis are just like the rest of the peoples in the world. We don't want our country to remain under occupation," he said but then went on to stress that Baghdad would still rely heavily on the US-led coalition.

At the United Nations, changes were made to a UN Security Council resolution sponsored by Britain and the United States after an outcry from other council nations about sending a clear signal that Iraq will gain full sovereignty when the US-led occupation on June 30 hands power to the interim government.

Under the new draft, obtained by AFP, the mandate of US-led troops who will remain in Iraq after this month would expire "upon completion of the political process" to create a constitutionally elected Iraqi government.

But with that expected to take until late 2005 or even early 2006, it was not immediately clear if the changes would satisfy opposition to the first text led by China, France and Germany.

And the draft still fails to clarify the level of sovereignty the Iraqi leadership will enjoy after June 30, in the run-up to elections next year.

Iraq's interim foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari who flew to New York on Tuesday was expected to meet Security Council members on Thursday.