Starting an application as root

[Norm <maillist@xxxxxxx>]

When running in Gnome some applications when the start require the root 
pasword to continue, others such as the gui interface for nmap will open 
with limited options available.  It is simple enough to switch to a 
command line process to run it but I am looking for a way to switch to 
root or sudo during the process of starting the application.  Is there a 
simple modification to the open command in the GUI interface to call for 
the entry of a password to open the application as root
Norm