In the USA at least for the last 40 years that I have been flying the skies if you declare an emergency that is the end of the story. Those are the correct words. The pilot did declare and emergency and did state what he wanted to the center controller who then transferred them to approach and stated they had an emergency and what they wanted. IT IS REALLY NOT UP TO THE CONTROLLER to decide what they want or what they should do. I agree that when the controller ignored what they wanted that the crew should have simply stated what they were going to do and do it.
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#194541