IRAQ: Ibrahim Jaafari's chances of staying on as Iraq's prime minister were dramatically reduced last night after Sunni and Kurdish leaders announced they would not budge from their refusal to work with him.
Members of the Shia parties which nominated Mr Jaafari as their candidate and stood by him for two months were engaged in frantic last-minute lobbying ahead of an expected climbdown. Under pressure from their religious leaders, as well as the Iraqi media and the US and Britain, the Shia politicians will meet today to decide whether to choose a different candidate.
After weeks of paralysis, the moment of choice seems to have arrived. The Shias established a three-man committee on Sunday to approach the other groups for their views.
Shias emerged from the December elections as the largest group in parliament but with less than half the seats, forcing them to find allies. There is widespread agreement that Iraq needs a government of national unity to handle the security crisis and halt a slide into civil war.
Mr Jaafari's hopes of a softening in attitude by Sunnis and Kurds were dashed when Dhafir al-Ani, spokesman for the Iraqi Accordance Front, the biggest Sunni Arab bloc, said it had told the Shia committee that the front continued to reject him. They urged the Shias to come up with new names.
Iraq's president Jalal Talabani, one of the main Kurdish leaders, gave the same message on behalf of the Kurdish alliance. Mr Talabani, who is expected to be re-confirmed in his post when parliament meets, has had almost no relations with the prime minister for months.