[libvirt] inability to open local read-only connection

I have been experimenting with using libvirt (0.3.3) on a variety of systems (RHEL, CentOS and Oracle VM). I have run into an issue when I try to open a local read-only connection to the hypervisor that is failing only on Oracle VM server release 2.2.0. I have created a root owned setuid executable that is effectively running as root, but even so, still cannot open the local read-only connection of the hypervisor. It only works if I run it directly as root. This is not an option. I do not understand why it works as is on my RHEL and CentOS machines, but not my Oracle machine. It would seem as thought it is not checking if the effective uid is root, just the uid. Has anyone run into a similar issue or have any suggestions of what I might try to fix this issue or can tell me that this is a defect that needs (is) fixed?? Thanks.