Final push under way to choose Iraqi leaders

WASHINGTON -- The United Nations and United States envoys this week will launch a final push to form a new Iraqi government. Secret discussions were held at the United Nations last week to expedite filling four leadership jobs and 25 cabinet posts, according to U.S. officials.

Favorite candidates for the top four jobs have emerged, with particular focus on two emerging Shiite politicians for prime minister and veteran Sunni politician Adnan Pachachi as the possible president, U.S. and coalition officials say.

With only two months left before the handover of power on June 30, the U.S.-led coalition is cautiously optimistic that a new government can be named within 10 days.

"When (U.N. special envoy Lakhdar) Brahimi goes in, he's almost ready to start naming names. He's ready to start pulling things together. He's into the end game. He's created a structure," said a State Department official familiar with the Iraq talks. "We could go from political anarchy to the end game in a few days."

U.S. and U.N. officials also warn, however, that identifying new leaders and balancing disparate ethnic and religious communities -- plus coping with the anticipated backlash from excluded parties, including key members of the Iraqi Governing Council -- could eat up the entire month. Iraq's volatility could also complicate or defer consultations.

"Brahimi wants to finish it on this trip, if he can. But there may be other complications, like Fallujah on his last trip," said Ahmed Fawzi, Brahimi's spokesman.

But much of the political legwork has quietly been done over the past two weeks in Baghdad and Washington as well as the United Nations. Names of candidates for the four senior positions have already begun to circulate in Washington and New York, despite categorical denials from the United Nations and the Bush administration that final decisions have been made.

"Brahimi doesn't have definite plans. He's going in with an open mind having launched his sketchy ideas two weeks ago. He'll see how things will play out. We don't have a handbook that says, 'Instructions, here's how we do it,' " Fawzi added.

During talks in Baghdad last month, Brahimi asked several parties - - from a panel of Iraqi judges and the Governing Council to the U.S.- led coalition ruling Iraq -- to come up with slates of candidates.

As prime minister, a favorite of the U.S.-led coalition in Baghdad is Mahdi Hafez, the Shiite minister of planning who met Secretary of State Colin Powell and other senior U.S. and U.N. officials during a quiet visit to the United States last week. Hafez, a former communist who became a moderate, is considered a capable technocrat who could lead a caretaker government until elections are held early next year, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

"People think he's honest and not corrupt, which is rare," said a senior U.S. official who served in Iraq. Added a Kurdish official, "He's a solid compromise candidate. No one is likely to feel threatened by him."

But U.S. officials are also concerned that U.S. and British press reports naming Hafez last week, before Brahimi and National Security Council Iraq troubleshooter Robert Blackwill get to Baghdad, could taint or doom his potential candidacy.

The other politician cited by many is Ibrahim Jafari, the Shiite leader of the Islamic Dawa Party and one of 25 members on the council that is likely to be dissolved and replaced by the interim government. Among Iraq's many political parties, Dawa had the highest support, at 14 percent, in an ABC News poll in mid-March.

Jafari also held talks with the United Nations and the Bush administration last week about forming a new government. "There needs to be consensus on the interim government," Jafari said. "It may not reflect what I want as it's not elected, but it should be close to it."

But Brahimi and Blackwill could face serious opposition from other Iraqis. Muhammed Bahr Uloum, a prominent Shiite member of the Governing Council, warned Friday that Iraqis would rise up if the United Nations is allowed to pick the new government.

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