CONFORMAL PROPERTIES OF THE ODDERON IN QCD

We construct, in the framework of QCD, the conformally invariant functional whose maximal value gives the J-plane location of the leading singularity of the t-channel partial waves in LLA for diagrams with n reggeized gluons. In the case of the odderon the wave function in impact-parameter space depends on only one anharmonic ratio and the corresponding functional is significantly simplified. We discuss in the variational approach the relation between the odderon and the pomeron in QCD. A semi-quantitative argument is given that the intercept of the odderon in LLA is probably bigger than 1.