Abstract. It is well-known that interplanetary magnetic clouds can cause strong geomagnetic storms due to the high magnetic field magnitude in their interior, especially if there is a large negative B_z component present. In addition, the magnetic disturbances around such objects can play an important role in their "geo-effectiveness". On the other hand, the magnetic and flow fields in the CME sheath region in front of the body and in the rear of the cloud are important for understanding both the dynamics and the evolution of the interplanetary cloud. The "eventual" aim of this work is to calculate the magnetic field in this CME sheath region in order to evaluate the possible geo-efficiency of the cloud in terms of the maximum |B_z|-component in this region. In this paper we assess the potential of this approach by introducing a model with a simplified geometry. We describe the magnetic field between the CME shock surface and the cloud's boundary by means of a vector potential. We also apply our model and present the magnetic field distribution in the CME sheath region in front of the body and in the rear of the cloud formed after the event of 20 November 2003.