Shiite alliance agrees on nomination

The nominee has a reputation as an outspoken defender of the Shiite stance.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The Shiite alliance nominated a tough-talking Shiite politician, Jawad al-Maliki, as prime minister Friday in a move that breaks the long impasse over forming a new government aimed at pulling Iraq out of its sectarian strife.
Al-Maliki replaces outgoing Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, whose attempt to stay for a second term had raised sharp opposition from Sunni Arab and Kurdish leaders and caused a deadlock that lasted months as the country's security crisis worsened in the wake of last December's election.
Sunni and Kurdish politicians signaled they would accept al-Maliki -- a close ally of al-Jaafari in the Shiite Dawa Party -- clearing the way for parliament on Saturday to elect top leadership positions, including the president, and launch the process of putting together a government.
Hope
U.S. and Iraqi officials are hoping that a national unity government representing Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds will be able to quell both the Sunni-led insurgency and bloody Shiite-Sunni violence that has raged during the political uncertainty. If it succeeds, it could enable the U.S. to begin bringing home its 133,000 troops.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the Bush administration is hopeful that the latest political developments in Iraq will lead to significant progress in forming a permanent government.
"We hope to see good progress in the coming days," McClellan told reporters traveling with President Bush to California. "We'll be watching."
Violence continued Friday with at least 21 people killed, including six in a car bombing in Tal Afar and six off-duty Iraqi soldiers slain in Beiji, police said. The U.S. military announced that a Marine was fatally injured in combat Thursday in Anbar province.
Al-Maliki has a reputation as a hardline, outspoken defender of the Shiite stance -- raising questions over whether he will be able to negotiate the delicate sectarian balancing act.
From exile in Syria in the 1980s and 1990s, he directed Dawa guerrillas fighting Saddam Hussein's regime. Since returning home after Saddam's fall, he has been a prominent member of the commission purging former Baath Party officials from the military and government. Sunni Arabs, who made up the backbone of Saddam's ousted party, deeply resent the commission.
Tough negotiator
Al-Maliki was also a tough negotiator in drawn-out deliberations over a new constitution that was passed last year despite Sunni Arab objections. He resisted U.S. efforts to put more Sunnis on the drafting committee as well as Sunni efforts to water down provisions giving Shiites and Kurds the power to form semiautonomous mini-states in the north and south.
In talks Friday, the largest party in the seven-member Shiite alliance -- the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq -- initially pushed for the nomination of another Dawa party leader, Ali al-Adeeb, seen as more moderate and less likely to alienate Sunnis.
But Dawa insisted on al-Maliki, who is closer to al-Jaafari. Al-Adeeb, who spent part of his 20-year exile in Iran, was said to have frequent conflicts with al-Jaafari.
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