Talabani, Jaafari emerge front-runner to become Iraqi president, PM

Jaafari, a physician and father of five, is head of the Dawa Party, one of two leading religious parties in the United Iraqi Alliance, an Islamist Shia-led group which won 48 percent of the vote in elections on Jan. 30.

"The competition is still fierce but it appears so far that Jaafari will be the United Iraqi Alliance candidate because Dawa is insisting on him," a senior Shia source told Reuters.

While the alliance did not win the 60 percent it hoped for, the vote puts the coalition in a commanding position to take the top job in the next government. A two-thirds majority is needed in the newly elected National Assembly to form a government.

The alliance, formed with the backing of top Shia cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is headed by Dawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), both of which opposed Saddam Hussein from exile in Iran.

The source said SCIRI, led by Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, had agreed to support Jaafari and withdraw its candidate, Finance Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, "to preserve the unity of the alliance," which some had feared could collapse after the vote.

He said a final deal was unlikely Tuesday, with many more details on who gets which jobs still to be worked out.

On the other hand Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi Kurdish leader positioned to become the country's next president, crowned a lifelong struggle for Kurdish rights with huge success in the country's historic Jan. 30 election.

Polling 25 percent of the national vote, his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and its election partner, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), are Iraq's new power brokers and Talabani is confident his wish to be president will be granted.

"We are not playing a role of siding with one bloc against another," he told Reuters after the final tally Sunday, in an assurance the Kurds will seek a constructive post-ballot role.

"But without reaching agreement there is some kind of understanding, yes. The Shias are insisting on having the post of prime minister and they are supporting Kurds to have the post of president."