Support for Volcker's proposal to separate Andersen's non-audit businesses, including consulting and tax accounting, is the first condition for a Volcker-led board to take control. Also, the indictment must be dropped and Enron Corp. investors' lawsuits over Andersen audits of Enron must be settled.

Volcker's appeal to prosecutors will be the first time he involves himself directly in the effort to forestall a criminal trial and help the firm hang on to more than 2,000 clients after more than 80 widely publicized defections.

"I can assure you I will have a personal interest in the negotiations with Justice because it is one of the conditions for our board to be put into place," Volcker said at a news conference in Manhattan. "This is not a matter of confrontation with the Justice Department, it is a matter of cooperating to reform Andersen, and in serving the public interest by helping to bring reform to the whole auditing industry."

Andersen senior partners C.E. Andrews and Larry Rieger were appointed to lead the effort to transform the 89-year-old firm into one that will focus almost solely on auditing. Andrews said a "critical mass" of auditing partners are behind the plan, which involves selling most non-audit businesses and ceding control to the seven-member oversight board led by the former chief of the Federal Reserve. The firm is in mediation talks to settle the Enron investor lawsuits, which seek billions of dollars.

"We'll be looking at a much smaller firm than Andersen is currently, with a different type of client," said Karen Nelson, an accounting professor at Stanford Business School. Volcker is "correct in saying that the indictment will have to be dropped and all these other things will have to happen for Andersen to survive. I doubt they will happen."

Andrews would not comment on what brought Andersen to the brink of collapse. Volcker said, however, that the firm lost sight of its origins when it began to offer services other than auditing. Last year, consulting provided about 60 percent of the firm's revenue, he said.

Andersen "got lost somewhere in the transition of emphasis to non-audit services," Volcker said. "I saw a brochure that described nine separate services being offered to clients, with auditing one of them. That is a failed model. In the future, there won't be any brochures like that."