Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari looked set to keep the top job in Iraq?s new government yesterday after the ruling Shi?ite bloc nominated him to take on the same crises he has struggled to tackle.

After weeks of wrangling that exposed divisions in the biggest bloc in Parliament, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) resorted to a vote to pick a candidate, with Jaafari beating pragmatic economist Adel Abdul Mahdi by just one vote.

As the biggest party in parliament after winning 128 of the 275 seats, the alliance will be asked by the next president to name a prime minister, to be approved by a simple parliamentary majority, under the Iraqi constitution.

So Jaafari, a leader in the Dawa party, is almost certain to remain in office, still faced with an insurgency that has ravaged Iraq, growing sectarian tensions, and a battered economy that few foreign investors will touch.

And one of the most sensitive issue shows no signs of going away ? Sunni Arab accusations that Shi?ite militias tied to the government run death squads against Sunnis. Jaafari?s government has denied the accusation.

Kingmaker emerges

Aside from highlighting splits among leaders of Iraq?s 60 percent majority Shi?ites, the vote pointed to the emergence of fiery Shi?ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr as a rebel leader turned kingmaker.

Supporters of Sadr, who has led two uprisings against US and Iraqi troops, apparently swung the crucial votes to Jaafari, whom he favors over his rival leaders of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).

Shi?ite leaders played down any serious differences in the alliance and some said it was time to look ahead to what are likely to be far tougher negotiations on the formation of a new government that will face many sectarian snares.

?We have achieved our first mission, to nominate the alliance candidate for prime minister. We must now move ahead with the next step, which is the formation of the new government?, said Dawa party official Jawad al-Maliki.

The stalemate in alliance negotiations on a prime minister had delayed the start of talks on formation of what Iraqi officials hope will be a united government, the first serving a full four-year term since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Maliki said the alliance will meet with Kurdish leaders to discuss the challenges that lay ahead in forming a cabinet, which, judging by the tortuous talks after last January?s election, could take months.

Michael GEORGY