The names of potential Iraqi leaders are being bandied about in Washington today but the confusion over what power, if any, the new administration will have over the proposed US-led multinational force in the country remains.
With just weeks before the interim government is due to take over from the occupation authority on June 30th, US officials confirmed and then denied the prime minister would be Mr Hussain Shahristani.
The Shia nuclear scientist, who was imprisoned and tortured under the Saddam Hussein regime before being exiled, gave mixed signals about whether he wants the job and a senior official in Iraq said the reports from Washington were wrong.
A spokesman for the coalition authority, Mr Dan Senor, said the choice was a matter for UN envoy Mr Lakhdar Brahimi.
"My understanding is that that initial report about Mr Shahristani is incorrect. And the report that there is actually a candidate nailed down is incorrect as well," Mr Senor said.
However Mr Shahristani, who is close to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shia cleric, said: "I personally prefer to serve the people of Iraq in humanitarian fields as I have done since my escape from Abu Ghraib in 1991.
"However, putting the country on route to democracy and protecting the population from terrorists and violence is the responsibility of Iraqis, and we have to burden that responsibility."
Another US source said he expected Mr Adnan Pachachi, a Sunni who was foreign minister in the 1960s, to be president. There has been no official public comment on the claim.
The remarks cap another 24 hours of confusion over the future of the gulf State.
British Deputy Prime Minster John Prescott was forced to deny this morning that the US and British were split on the command structure for the proposed multinational force after June 30th.
Mr Blair said yesterday the Iraqis will have final control over foreign troops, but US Secretary of State Colin Powell later maintained that US forces will be under US control.
Mr Prescott today said British press reports of serious divisions between London and Washington were "complete rubbish". London and Washington's statements boiled down to two non-conflicting elements: Iraqis' having control over foreign troops after June 30th, except when those troops were attacked, he said.
"The Iraqi government ... will make all the proper decisions about the security and policies to be pursued in regard to terrorism ... Where there's a question of initiative to be taken in regard to counter-terrorism, that will be the proper sovereignty of the Iraqi government.
"But under circumstances which can occur where a terrorist attack takes place and attacks a military force, whether it's the Americans or the British, clearly they will be expected to defend themselves. Nobody doubts that," Mr Prescott said.
Amid the uncertainty, the violence in Iraq continues with US troops fighting Mehdi militia loyal to militant Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the holy city of Najaf.
US tanks and airborne gunships were in action before dawn, where medical staff said at least nine people were killed and 36 wounded in fighting at an ancient cemetery.
Al-Sadr's spokesman Mr Qais al-Khazali confirmed a close aide and relative of the cleric, Mr Riyad al-Noury, was seized during an overnight raid on his home in Najaf. Three other aides evaded capture.
"What is happening is a liquidation of Shi'ites, especially the Sadr movement," al-Khazali said.
Elsewhere, two engineers from a Russian firm and two Iraqis were killed when their bus was attacked at the gates to Baghdad's main Dora power station. Five other employees of Russia's Interenergoservis company were wounded.
Agencies