Shi’ites name Iraqi premier

SHI’ITE lawmakers yesterday chose Ibrahim al-Jaafari to be Iraq’s new prime minister, taking a key step in forming a government nearly two months after national elections, officials said.

Mr al-Jaafari is assured the post because Shi'ites won the most parliament seats in the December 15 national elections. He won 64 votes in a caucus of Shi'ite legislators, officials said. There were two abstentions.

Parliament must yet choose the largely ceremonial position of president, who will then designate the alliance's choice as the new prime minister.

Mr al-Jaafari's designation paves the way for the Shi'ite alliance to begin talks in earnest with parties representing Sunni Arabs, Kurds, secularists and others to try to form a broad-based government, which the US hopes can calm the insurgency so American and other foreign troops can begin leaving.

Attacks continued yesterday, with at least four people killed and 20 wounded in a spate of blasts and shootings in Baghdad and north of the capital. Insurgents also fired a mortar into the heavily guarded Green Zone in central Baghdad, but there were no casualties.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, the head of the influential Kurdish Coalition, took little time in making demands on the make-up of the next government.

He told reporters that the Kurds would not support Mr al-Jaafari and his Shi'ite coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance, if former premier Ayad Allawi's secularist Iraqi National List was not included in the cabinet.

Several senior Shi'ite politicians have said they oppose Mr Allawi a secularist who has good relations with the US taking a prominent role in the next government.

Mr Allawi has been touted as a possible replacement for Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, a Shi'ite bloc member accused by Sunnis of directing Shi'ite-led security forces to kill and kidnap members of the Sunni Arab community.

Mr Jabr denies the claims. Shi'ite leaders, who were long suppressed by Saddam Hussein, have vowed to take control of the interior and defence ministries, which run the police and military.