Financing for the tribunal is one of the next challenges.

Secondly, the substance of the matter or the merits will be for the tribunal itself.

More than 160 investigators and prosecutors, from 38 different countries, are now working for the tribunal.

The cooperation improved, but it never matched the Administration's public position about its support for the tribunal, said one official.

He had brought two other attorneys with him to make up the prosecution team for the tribunal.

His guilty plea was the first conviction for the tribunal since it began work three years ago.

But he had always been able to conjure answers for the tribunal, when the wrong ones would have meant his life.

Investigators for the tribunal spoke today on condition of anonymity.

American officials, who have provided more than $75 million for the tribunal, offered no comment on the Iraqi decision.

But it wasn't enough for the tribunal, and I can't offer you anything else.