Iraq’s Shi’ites mull PM choice as hostage pleads

BAGHDAD, - An Italian journalist taken hostage in Baghdad made an emotional appeal for her life and called on foreign forces to withdraw from the country in a tape released by insurgents today.

The undated tape was released as the winners of last month's election, an alliance led by religious Shi'ites, were locked in debate over the new government.

An announcement of who would be prime minister had been expected on Wednesday, but it looked less likely as the jockeying for position lasted into the night.

While Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a physician and leader of the Islamic Dawa Party, has been identified as a front-runner, Ahmad Chalabi, a former Pentagon favourite, is pushing to have his candidacy considered.

Security is likely to be the priority for whoever is chosen.

Indeed, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said US intelligence agencies had failed to provide reliable estimates of the size of the insurgency.

In a tape distributed to news organisations in Baghdad, Giuliana Sgrena, a reporter for Rome newspaper Il Manifesto who was snatched on Feb 4, made a tearful appeal for help.

"I beg you, put an end to the occupation. I beg the Italian government and the Italian people to put pressure on the government to pull out," Sgrena says in Italian, sobbing and holding her hands in front of her in supplication.

"Everyone must withdraw from Iraq. No one should come to Iraq any longer because all foreigners, all Italians are considered enemies. Please do something for me," she cried.

More than 120 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq over the past year and at least a third have been killed. Two Lebanese businessmen taken hostage in December were freed on Wednesday.

The tape underlines Iraq's precarious situation as the country tries to form a government following its first post-Saddam Hussein election held on Jan. 30.

The United Iraqi Alliance, a religion-based coalition which won 48 per cent of the vote, is expected to name Jaafari as its candidate for prime minister soon.

On Wednesday, the 228-members of the alliance met to discuss a variety of issues, including ministers for the next government, a source close to Jaafari said.

Jaafari, a mild-mannered physician whose family lives in London, met senior Kurdish figures as part of the process.

The Kurds came second in the poll, winning 25 per cent of the votes. If they join up with the main Shi'ite bloc then together they would control two thirds of the 275 seats in the National Assembly, enough to decide the top government posts.

In an interview with Reuters last week, Jaafari indicated he would reach out to Iraq's minority Sunni Arab population if he were to take a senior position in the next government.

Sunnis largely boycotted the vote or didn't turn up for fear of violence and will now be almost completely marginalised in the National Assembly. However, all the major parties have indicated they want Sunnis involved in the political process.

Iraq's government is not expected to take office for several weeks, but already the top item on the agenda is security and minds are turning to when US and other foreign forces might begin to withdraw after nearly two years in Iraq.

With insurgents still carrying out daily attacks, US and other troops are expected to remain for months or years and have dismissed the idea of setting a timetable to pull out.

Rumsfeld told a House of Representatives Armed Services Committee hearing that US intelligence agencies had "differing assessments" for the size of the insurgency, adding: "Frankly, I don't have a lot of confidence in any of them. "

The Iraqi intelligence service has said there were 200,000 insurgents, including 40,000 hardcore fighters - numbers Rumsfeld says are "totally inconsistent" with US estimates.

"It's not clear to me that the number is the overriding, important thing," he told reporters after the hearing.

"The size of the problem is one thing. The lethality of it is quite a different thing, the nature of it and the quality of it."

As well as kidnappings and car bomb attacks, insurgents have sabotaged Iraq's infrastructure as part of efforts to set back the country's reconstruction.

Iraq, which has the world's second largest oil reserves, is dependent on oil revenues for income. On Wednesday, saboteurs attacked a pipeline near the key refinery city of Baiji.

Flows along Iraq's main northern export pipeline to Turkey were also interrupted, just days after they resumed following months out of commission due to sabotage.

In western Baghdad, a crowd of Shi'ite Muslims attacked a suspected suicide bomber who was mingling amongst them and, fearing he might be about to blow himself up, beat him to death.

The Shi'ites were celebrating Ashura, an annual ritual which honours the martyrdom of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson. At Ashura last year, 170 people were killed by suicide bombers in Kerbala and Baghdad in one of the worst attacks in Iraq.

- REUTERS