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Iraq surprises US with choice of PM

"I assume this choice will hold, but the process isn't over yet. Let's wait to see what the Iraqi street has to say about this name."

Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General

Iyad Allawi, a former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath party who worked with the CIA to topple him, was chosen as prime minister of Iraq on Friday in an announcement that caught US and UN officials off guard.

The US-selected Iraqi Governing Council agreed by consensus to name Allawi to take over from US-led occupation authorities on June 30 and lead his country to its first free elections next year.

UN and US officials in New York and in Washington appeared surprised by the announcement. Some questioned whether UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, charged with fashioning the Iraqi interim government, was part of the decision-making process.

"It's not how we expected it to happen," chief UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York.

But Eckhard said that "Mr. Brahimi respects the decision and is prepared to work with this person on the selection of the other posts in this interim government."

UN sources said the names of an interim president and two vice presidents could be announced as early as this weekend.

Allawi, a long exiled neurologist and businessman from Iraq's long-oppressed majority Shi'ite community, will be joined in the 30-member interim government by Sunni Muslims, Kurds and representatives of Iraq's other minorities.

Brahimi has been in Iraq for the past three weeks consulting with Iraqi factions and the provisional authority on the composition of the new government due to take over when the Governing Council is dissolved at the end of June.

Eckhard told reporters that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also respected the choice of Allawi and the word "respect" had been "carefully chosen."

"I assume this choice will hold, but the process isn't over yet," he said. "Let's wait to see what the Iraqi street has to say about this name."

Brahimi would now sit down with Allawi and discuss the other names that had emerged from his consultations, with an eye to choosing candidates for president, vice president and a Cabinet.

Brahimi was not expected to return to New York from Iraq for another week or 10 days to brief the Security Council on the new government's composition.

The choice of Allawi appeared to surprise the Bush administration, which is struggling to find a credible Iraqi leadership as it tries to end deadly attacks that have derailed efforts to stabilize the country in the year since the US-led invasion.

Asked if he could confirm Allawi would be the new prime minister, Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters early on Friday, "We have no position on any candidate at this moment because we are waiting to hear from Ambassador Brahimi and he needs time to complete his work."

Six hours after the announcement, an official in US President George W. Bush's administration said: "We thought [Allawi] would be an excellent prime minister ... I think that this is going to work."
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