Shiite coalition nominates al-Jaafari for prime minister

The United Iraqi Alliance, Iraq's main Shiite political coalition, has named Ibrahim al-Jaafari as its nominee to be the country's next prime minister, an Iraqi political official said.

The official, a member of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said that Ahmad Chalabi, another candidate for the post, dropped out of consideration.

Al-Jaafari told CNN last week that he would accept the prime minister position if he was offered it. Asked whether he would support an Iraq based on an Islamic republic model, al-Jaafari noted that Iraq's government would reflect its distinct personality: "We have to adapt our system according to the character and nature of our society."

He said "security, services and the economy" are the main arenas that need attention. Al-Jaafari has opposed the early withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. In an interview with The Associated Press, conducted before the election results were certified, al-Jaafari said that Islam should be the Iraq's official religion but said its constitution should "be based on respecting all Iraqi beliefs and freedoms."

The 58-year-old doctor maintains popularity in Iraq and is viewed as a moderate. He told CNN last week that he wants to bring the alienated Sunni Arabs into the country's political fold.

His Dawa movement, a religious-oriented party with ties to Iran, resisted the Saddam Hussein regime and al-Jaafari himself had been in exile for years during the Saddam era.

Al-Jaafari has served as one of the deputy presidents in the interim government. Chalabi -- long a controversial figure in the Iraqi conflict -- was a key source of U.S. intelligence that former dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Such weaponry has never been found, despite a dogged search for them.

The UIA won a bare majority of the 275-seat national assembly in elections at the end of last month -- 140 seats -- followed by the Kurdish alliance with 75 seats and Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi list with 40 seats.

Al-Jaafari would need the support of others to get the nomination, including the Kurdish bloc.

Interim Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi of the Supreme Council for the Iraqi Revolution in Iraq has also been mentioned for the post along the way. The main task of the transitional government will be to write a permanent constitution, which -- if approved -- will form the legal underpinning of a permanent government.

Other developments

• Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced Tuesday that his country will send an additional 450 to 470 troops to Iraq to train security forces and protect a Japanese engineering contingent involved in reconstruction projects in the southern part of the country.

• Iraqi police on Tuesday shot and killed an insurgent who they say was trying to plant an improvised explosive device near a Shiite mosque in Ghazaliya in western Baghdad. Police said several other insurgents at the scene fled after the police opened fire.

• Insurgents attacked an Iraqi special forces convoy in Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 32, hospital sources said. Dr. Haidar al-Saffar, deputy director of Yarmouk hospital, told CNN that his hospital received the bodies of two Iraqi troops and a civilian. All of the wounded were Iraqi military forces.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN)

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