From today's Boston Globe:

"The U.N. Charter allows nations to take military action with Security Council approval as an explicit enforcement action, such as during the Korean War and the 1991 Gulf War.

But in 2003, in the build-up to the Iraq war, the United States dropped an attempt to get a Security Council resolution approving the invasion when it became apparent it would not pass.

At the time, Annan had underlined the lack of legitimacy for a war without U.N. approval, saying: ''If the United States and others were to go outside the Security Council and take unilateral action they would not be in conformity with the Charter.''

On Wednesday, after being asked three times whether the lack of council approval for the war meant it was illegal, he said: ''From our point of view and the [UN ] Charter point of view it was illegal.''

He also said that the wave of violence engulfing Iraq puts in doubt the national elections scheduled for January.

There could not be ''credible elections if the security conditions continue as they are now,'' he told the BBC."