IRAQ: Sharif Ali bin Hussein harbours an unusual ambition which he is putting to the test in Iraq's national elections.
He wants to be king of Iraq, and is standing for office tomorrow as head of a constitutional monarchy party. The only problem is that, 45 years since his cousin, the last monarch, was gunned down in a bloody military coup, few Iraqis want to see the comeback of a king.
Since returning to Iraq from exile, Sharif Ali has realised that what Iraqis want is someone who will stand up to the country's US-backed government.
He still yearns to rule, but to get elected and help draft the country's constitution Sharif Ali has had to become one of the most trenchant critics of the American occupation, Iraq's interim government, and the political process he is part of.
"Look around the country. There's massive violence, corruption, power shortages and no reconstruction process. It's simply not working," the 47-year-old former investment banker told the Daily Telegraph from his majestic but grubby mansion in the centre of Baghdad.
The reason why, Sharif Ali believes, has been the failure by US occupying forces to adequately involve Iraqis in the political process.
The violence would not abate after the elections, he predicted.
There is a faint touch of bitterness in Sharif's Ali's criticism, which grates with his otherwise urbane manner.
He is himself one the "outsiders" he condemns: his family whisked him out of the country at the age of two to avoid being murdered in the 1958 coup that replaced the British-backed monarchy with military rule.
He imagined he would receive a rapturous reception on his return to Baghdad in June 2003. Instead he was welcomed by a few hundred Iraqis in a media-managed event.
The US occupying powers studiously ignored his requests to take part in government, or to heed his advice, although paradoxically his exclusion from office has helped foster support.
Sharif Ali is confident his party will do well in the poll. But, for now, he has left his royal signet ring and medallion in his flat in London.