UNITED NATIONS, July 18: The members of the Iraqi Governing Council would not be given Iraq’s United Nations seat at the world body instead the representatives of the council would address the UN Security Council as individuals, diplomats here said on Thursday.

Under the UN charter the governing council members, who are expected to come to New York on Tuesday, do not represent a sovereign government and the UN seat would continue to be occupied by representatives of Saddam Hussein government.

Ambassador of Spain Inocencio Arias, the council president for July, announced that the Council members decided during closed-door consultations that the three delegates could speak under Article 39 of the council rules, which allows anyone the council considers competent to provide information.

“They will be invited not as an official government but as individuals,” Mr Arias said on Thursday.

The 25-member Governing Council was appointed just last weekend by the US-British military authorities in Iraq.

It voted as one of its first acts to send the delegation to the United Nations, “to strengthen and consolidate the Governing Council’s role as the legitimate Iraqi authority during this transitional period.”