Network Bridging - with user rights

Problem: using network briding with tun/tap, requires root permission - not great when you need to start KVM VMs with root/sudo, I'd like to avoid this.

NON-SOLUTION (for me): using KVM with libvirt WILL work around this issue - but I DO NOT want to use libvirt (period, please don't suggest it)

Background: this is NOT a Tisquel specific issue (Debian squeeze & wheezy had the same issue)

WHAT HAPPENS: if i start KVM VMs with root permission, then my br0 is correctly used to create TUN interfaces for the VMs. As a regular user, various permission denied error(s) - regarding the creation of the TUN interfaces.

THEORY: I believe I recall seeing a "solution" of manually setting up the TUN interfaces, then specifically calling them from KVM (but I haven't been able to find this post while searching online).

Any suggestions on how to make this work?