Former Saddam supporter now Iraqi PM
Charged with taking over from the US occupation authority on June 30 and leading his country to its first free elections next year, his nomination emerged from a unanimous consensus of the 25 US appointees on Iraq's Governing Council.
UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, asked by Washington to help shape a new government, welcomed the choice of the British-educated, Shi'ite neurologist.
A secular Muslim from Iraq's long-oppressed majority Shi'ite community, Allawi will be joined on the 30-member team by Sunni Muslims, Kurds and representatives of Iraq's other minorities.
Negotiations are going on in the UN Security Council over how much sovereign power the interim government will have. Some Iraqi leaders and countries like France and Russia are pushing to amend a US-and British-sponsored resolution to strengthen the government's powers, notably over US-led troops in Iraq.
The main challenge Allawi faces will be holding elections, due in January under the US proposal; Iraq is riven with religious and ethnic tensions, and has no tradition of democracy.
Allawi is related to Ahmad Chalabi, the former Pentagon favourite now out of favour, who was once Washington's first choice to lead Iraq. The two are not regarded as close. Allawi's cousin Ali Allawi is the present defence minister.
Allawi, born in 1945, is also a wealthy businessman. Having spent many years abroad he turned against Saddam. In 1990 he formed the Iraqi National Accord, a party backed by the CIA and British intelligence and including many disillusioned former Baathists.
Iraqi secret police were sent to assassinate him at home in the London suburb of Kingston in 1978 when he struck up a relationship with the British secret service, according to a book by Iraq specialists Andrew and Patrick Cockburn.
Axe-wielding Saddam agents burst into his bedroom as he and his wife slept but fled when his father-in-law appeared.
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