Baghdad: Iraq’s Shiite Alliance hopes to offer Kurdish and Sunni blocs a new candidate for prime minister on Friday to try to break a deadlock over the formation of a new government before parliament meets.
The Alliance's original choice for the job, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, indicated in a televised speech on Thursday he was ready to step aside at the request of the bloc after resisting widespread calls for his resignation for months.
That raised hopes of a deal on a national unity government Washington hopes can avert a full-scale sectarian civil war and draw Arab Sunni insurgents into the political process.
The Alliance, which has the biggest bloc in parliament, had said it would hold a new vote for its nominee but shelved those plans fearing further delays and opposition again from other political alliances if they are not consulted first.
"The Alliance wants to agree on a candidate without going through another vote which could cause further delays," said a senior member of the bloc.
"Once that is accomplished we will try to reach a consensus with all the other blocs. We don't have much time so we are rushing."
There were no signs of a breakthrough by late afternoon but the Shi'ite bloc's small Fadhila party offered its leader, Nadim al-Jabiri, as a candidate for prime minister.
The office of senior Alliance official Jawad al-Maliki said talks were expected to last until late into the night.
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