BRIEFLY NOTED

Time has now run out for the court, which must choose prosecutors and judges at its conference in the United Nations headquarters in New York from February 3 to 7.

The ICC will have to launch a new recruiting process, possibly picking a prosecutor later next year.

And on that subject, ICC sources say the UN is demanding that the ICC pay full price for use of facilities including conference rooms and translators.

ICC officials may be annoyed at this: the UN, after all, was the body that set up the commission which put together the rules adopted by the court in the Rome Treaty in 1998.

Now ICC delegates, knowing their budget is less than a third of The Hague tribunal, will have to be careful not to make holes in the UN carpet during their gathering. Perhaps they should bring their own sandwiches.

Chris Stephen is IWPR's Bureau Chief in The Hague