Iraqi race for the top heats up after withdrawal

THE contest for Iraq's next prime minister narrowed yesterday after French-educated finance minister Adel Abdul Mahdi stood down from consideration within the Shi'ite alliance that won the most votes in the elections.

Abdul Mahdi's removal leaves the United Iraqi Alliance with two other contenders; interim vice president Ibrahim al-Jaafari and former Pentagon favourite Ahmed Chalabi.

Current interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's party came a distant third in election, and any role he would have in the new government was not yet clear, since the Shi'ite alliance seems determined to place one of its own in the powerful post.

Al-Jaafari's Islamic Dawa Party is solidly pushing him as the alliance's choice. However, a spokesman for the Shi'ite Political Council, an umbrella group for 38 Shi'ite political parties, said a majority in the alliance was now supporting Mr Chalabi.

"Chalabi didn't want to nominate himself in the first place but under pressures from the majority of thealliance he decided to nominate himself," Hussein al-Mousawi said.

He said 80 of the estimated 140 alliance members that would take their seats in the newly-elected National Assembly favoured Chalabi.

The National Assembly's first task is to elect a president and two vice presidents by a two-thirds majority. The three then choose a new prime minister subject to assembly approval.

Alliance representatives travelled to the holy city of Najaf yesterday to meet their religious leaders to discuss the choice for premier.

An aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual leader of Iraqi Shi'ites, said that so far, "official and unofficial delegations arrived in Najaf and left without reaching agreements."

They were to return on Wednesday for more talks, the aide said. The alliance was talking to other winning parties about the potential premier, drawing in the Kurdish parties, which came in second, and a secular Shi'ite political coalition, which came in third, into the deliberations, he said.

The Kurds have already said they want Jalal Talabani, a Sunni Kurd and leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, to be president. No other candidates have stepped forward.

Both Mr al-Jaafari, a doctor who lived in London before serving on the now-disbanded Iraqi Governing Council, and Mr Chalabi, would give the new Shi'ite-dominated government a Western accent, appearing to allay concerns in Washington that Iran's influence will grow in Iraq.

Should Mr Chalabi assume the post, it will be the culmination of a turbulent period dating from the US-led invasion on Iraq when he was first a favourite with the US administration, then fell out of favour. His popularity with ordinary Iraqis has also ebbed and flowed.