So World Bank president Jim Wolfensohn's insistence that the heavily U.S.-backed bank receive the U.N.'s blessing before deploying its economic team to Iraq seemed almost calculated to raise administration hackles. U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow -- who may have used stronger words in private -- said he was "baffled" by the bank's apparent foot-dragging.

Across 19th Street at the IMF's Washington headquarters, meanwhile, officials uncharitably took pleasure in what appeared to be a rare diplomatic gaffe by the sure-tongued World Bank chief. "Wolfensohn has gotten himself into a pissing match with John Snow and the U.S. by calling for a U.N. mandate," gloated one official.

But the diplomatic kerfuffle abated as abruptly as an Iraqi sandstorm. Wolfensohn agreed to send World Bank personnel into Iraq just as the Group of Seven resolved to seek a formal U.N. resolution on working together on reconstruction, clearing the way for the bank to go in. "It was not a question of being legalistic," explains Joe Saba, World Bank country director for Iraq. "We can't go into a member country without being invited in, and when the government is gone, we need a request from the international community."

And what if the bank is asked to leave?