Interim Iraq official vies for prime minister post

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Wednesday he was forming a broad coalition to fight for the post of prime minister after Iraq's dominant Shiite political party nominated a conservative candidate.\nThe haggling over the new government came against the backdrop of more violence. A car bomb killed two people and wounded 14 in the northern city of Mosul, and a U.S. soldier was killed in a separate bomb attack north of Baghdad, officials said.\nAllawi, a secular Shiite, skirted criticism of Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who was nominated Tuesday by the United Iraqi Alliance as its candidate for prime minister. The decision made al-Jaafari the overwhelming favorite for the post.\nWhen asked if he feared that al-Jaafari's alliance could impose Islamic rule, Allawi responded that he opposed the creation of any form of Islamic government.\n"We are liberal powers and we believe in a liberal Iraq and not an Iraq governed by political Islamists. But as a person, he is an honorable man, fighter and a good brother," Allawi said.\nAllawi would not provide details of his proposed coalition.\n"There are other lists and other brothers in smaller lists which won the elections, and we are working with some of those lists to form a national Iraqi democratic coalition which believes in Iraq and its principles," Allawi said at a news conference, flanked by two interim ministers who are members of his secular party, The Iraqi List.\nKurdish parties have also weighed in with their own demands for top jobs, including the post of president.\nAl-Jaafari is one of two interim vice presidents and leader of a religious party that fought Saddam Hussein.\nIn order to take the premiership, al-Jaafari must build a coalition to gain agreement from Kurds and others on the presidency and candidates for Cabinet posts before seeking the support of a majority of the National Assembly elected Jan. 30.\nAl-Jaafari is "a man I can work with, but to discuss who will be the prime minister of Iraq, this still needs more time," Kurdish Interim Vice President Rowsch Nouri Shaways told reporters. "We aim to get high rank in the government institutions. We aim to get one of the top positions and we aim to participate in the Council of Ministers, suitable with our percentage in the elections."\nKurdish parties, which won 75 seats in the 275-seat national assembly, want Jalal Talabani, a secular Sunni Kurd and leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, to be Iraq's next president.\nThe Shiite Muslim clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance won 140 seats, while Allawi's secular Shiite Iraqi List party won 40 seats. Nine other parties divided the remaining 20 seats.\nAccording to the interim constitution adopted last year under the U.S. occupation, parliament must elect a president and two vice presidents by a two-thirds majority, or 182 seats. The three must then unanimously choose a prime minister subject to assembly approval.\nThere is no timetable for the assembly to convene, and al-Jaafari and his alliance must agree with other elected parties on who will fill the three posts and the Cabinet. Even then, the prime minister has a month to name his Cabinet before the assembly vote.\nAl-Jaafari's selection on Tuesday came after former Washington ally Ahmad Chalabi dropped out of the race following three days of round-the-clock bargaining. Al-Jaafari has been seen as having close ties to Iran's ruling clergy, though he denies any links to a government that President Bush has said is part of an "axis of evil."\nFor al-Jaafari, 58, to succeed, he'll have to meet conflicting demands from Kurds, Sunni Arabs and even Islamic hard-liners within his alliance\nIraq's secular Kurds and many Sunnis worry that al-Jaafari will try to impose his Dawa Party's brand of conservative Islam on the country, particularly because the assembly will be charged with writing a new constitution.