Former Washington favourite Ahmad Chalabi dropped his bid to be the next prime minister of Iraq today.
The decision makes conservative interim vice president Ibrahim al-Jaafari the sole United Iraqi Alliance candidate for prime minister, a senior alliance official said.
The decision came after three days of round-the-clock negotiating by senior members of the UIA, which emerged from last month’s elections with a 140 seat majority in the 275 member parliament, or National Assembly.
The office of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, confirmed that Chalabi had withdrawn.
Al-Jaafari, said to have links with Iran, lived in in London exile until the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Former interim premier Ayad Allawi, whose party came third in the first post-Saddam election, is also a prime ministerial candidate.