"Some want it small. Others want a bigger role," Kurdish council member Mahmud Othman told AFP.

"There will be discussions. It will be settled," he said.

The body, which is a microcosm of Iraq's fractious mix of Sunnis, Shiite, Kurds, Christians and Turkmen, is due to take up the matter this week.

Othman said the chilly reception to the UN seemed to be coming from Iraq's Shiite majority.

"I think that they were not happy with the report given by the UN delegation that came to Iraq" last month, Othman said.

That delegation, led by UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, came out in favour of the US position that elections were not possible in Iraq before June and were at least eight months away.

Brahimi's report cited the country's lack of electoral infrastrucure, including the absence of electoral rolls and law.

His verdict came as a blow to the Shiites and their spiritual guide Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who had demanded snap polls and had welcomed the UN mission, hoping it would validate their views.

Senior White House official Robert Blackwill touched down in Baghdad Saturday on a reported mission to help settle the rift.

Both the United States and many members of the council want the UN to advise on the plans for a caretaker government in hopes that it will bestow legitimacy on the process both at home and abroad.

"It should play a big role. The UN will give the process international legitimacy," Othman said.

Meanwhile, an Arab member of Kirkuk's city council was shot dead yesterday in the ethnically tense northern Iraqi city, police said, after a weekend which saw seven US soldiers killed and a score wounded.