CAIRO, Egypt (AP):

A group of Iraqi tribal leaders, former politicians and intellectuals appealed yesterday to the United Nations to take control of Iraq, in a move they say would help US troops leave the beleaguered country.

The letter addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was delivered to the Cairo offices of the organisation by the coordinators of the group which they say counts scores of influential Iraqis among its members.

The coordinators include Adeeb al-Jadir, Ahmed Al-Haboubi and Nouri Abdel Razak Hussein, politicians overthrown in 1968 when Saddam Hussein's Baath Party came to power.

''We believe that such a move requires putting Iraq under the UN supervision for a limited period of time so that it can move the political process back on its natural and correct track,'' the letter said.