IRAQ: The battle to become Iraq's prime minister heated up yesterday when interim leader Mr Iyad Allawi's coalition formally put him forward as a candidate after last month's historic elections won by a Shia alliance.
Mr Allawi's coalition, which came third in the January 30th vote, winning 14 per cent of the vote and securing 40 seats in the 275-member National Assembly, decided to put their candidate forward after nearly two weeks of intense debate.
Thaer al-Naqib, an Iraq government spokesman, said the decision on Mr Allawi was clinched when several other parties and coalitions said they would support the interim leader's bid to return to his post. His entrance into the fray suggests Mr Allawi's backers believe that not everyone is content to let the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shia-led religious coalition that won the election, gaining 140 seats in the assembly, decide who gets the top job.
The United Iraqi Alliance has yet to name its candidate for prime minister formally, although the front runner is Mr Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a religious Shia and former exile.
He is being challenged from within the alliance by one-time Pentagon darling and former exile, Mr Ahmad Chalabi.
A two-thirds majority is needed in the assembly to form a government - a margin no coalition has unless it strikes an alliance with another group. A Kurdish alliance came second in the election, winning 25 per cent of votes for 75 seats.
If the main Shia alliance and the Kurds were to ally, they could grasp a two-thirds majority and decide the top government posts between them. Until Mr Allawi joined the running on Monday, that had appeared the most likely scenario.
Adding intrigue to the horse-trading, Mr Allawi, who is a secular Shia, met Mr Jaafari for more than an hour of talks yesterday.
"We evaluated the election process," Mr Jaafari said afterwards, giving no details.
Meanwhile, two Indonesian journalists captured by militants near Ramadi six days ago were released yesterday. Indonesia said the two - female reporter Meutya Hafid, 26, and 38-year-old cameraman Budiyanto - were heading out of the country via Jordan.
Continuing the cycle of abductions, an Iraqi television presenter was seized in the northern city of Mosul, the director of the local province's radio and TV station said.
Raiida al-Wazan (36) was taken on Sunday while driving to work.