Iraq's first post-Saddam ambassador to the United Nations formally presented his credentials today, but he cannot vote until Baghdad pays $14.5 million in back dues.
"Welcome to the UN and we have a lot to do. You can count on our cooperation," Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in greeting Iraqi envoy Mr Samir Sumaidy.
"I am so delighted to be the first delegate to represent Iraq at the United Nations after its freeing," Mr Sumaidy said.
The credentials ceremony came as the 191-nation UN General Assembly this week opened its 59th session at its New York headquarters.
Iraq has had no UN ambassador since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government last year. Mr Mohammed Aldouri, its top envoy in the period running up to the US-led invasion, fled New York just before the conflict began in March 2003.
Mr Sumaidy, a Sunni Muslim writer and businessman who was a prominent opposition figure while Saddam was in power, was named by the United States to the Iraqi Governing Council after the war and later served as interior minister.
Although a sovereign interim government took power in Baghdad in late June, Iraq cannot resume voting in the General Assembly until it pays the United Nations at least $14.5 million in dues, according to a report Mr Annan issued earlier this week.
The General Assembly is the main UN deliberative body, with each country normally having one vote.
Under UN rules, nations lose their vote if their dues go unpaid for two or more years, although the assembly can choose to let a country continue voting if it concludes the shortfall is "due to conditions beyond the control of the member."
Even before the invasion, Iraq had not kept up with its dues because of the stringent UN economic sanctions imposed on it in 1990 over Baghdad's invasion of neighboring Kuwait.