IRAQ - Feb 15 - Al Jaafari And Chalabi Vie For Iraq Premiership.

The contest for next PM narrows after FM Adel Abdul Mahdi stands down from consideration, making it a two-man Shiite race, party spokesmen said. The UIA, which has provisionally won more than half the seats in the new National Assembly, has been left with interim Vice-President Ebrahim Al Jaafari and former Pentagon favourite Ahmad Chalabi. Representatives for both men claimed their candidate was the front runner. "There is almost a general consensus between most of the main political parties in the alliance on the nomination of Ebrahim Al Jaafari", Adnan Ali, his chief of staff, said. "We're not going to deliver an official announcement for his nomination for two days". Hussain Al Mousawi, a spokesman for the Shiite Political Council, an umbrella group for 38 political parties, said Chalabi would most likely be the next PM. "Chalabi didn't want to nominate himself in the first place but under pressure from the majority of the Alliance he decided to nominate himself", Al Mousawi said. Abdul Mahdi and his SCIRI party agreed to withdraw him as a candidate in return for unspecified concessions, a party spokesman said.