Chalabi seeks U.S. support for bid

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Iraqi political sources say Ahmed Chalabi is actively seeking U.S. support in his rear guard bid to become his nation's prime minister in spite of a highly publicized break with the Bush administration last year.

The polarizing Iraqi National Congress leader still has supporters within the administration who see him as an alternative to the more religious elements in the Shi'ite electoral slate that won a legislative majority in the Jan. 30 elections, Iraqi sources say.

The electoral commission officially certified the results of the vote yesterday and allocated 140 National Assembly seats to the United Iraqi Alliance, giving the Shi'ite-dominated coalition a majority in the new parliament.

The two leading parties in the Shi'ite coalition " which comprises 16 political groups " previously had agreed behind closed doors to back the moderate and soft-spoken Shi'ite Ibrahim al-Jaafari of the Islamic Dawa party, sources said.

But faced with Mr. Chalabi's push for power, they have placed another name in the ring " Adel Abdul Mahdi, a French-educated economist who belongs to the Iranian-linked Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI.

The result could be the disintegration of the United Iraqi Alliance, warned Phebe Marr, an expert on Iraqi politics at the United States Institute of Peace.

The alliance is expected to decide among the three candidates in a secret vote by the 140 members who won seats in the 275-seat National Assembly.

But even if he fails there, Mr. Chalabi could try to secure power by allying a rump faction of the alliance with the powerful Kurdish Alliance, which won 75 seats, or the secular Shi'ite alliance of the current prime minister, Iyad Allawi.

Analysts inside and outside Iraq do not expect the outcome of the latest power struggle to become clear before next week at the earliest.

"This is going to be a game of musical chairs for some weeks to come. The bargaining and trading is just going to go on for some time," said Ms. Marr.