A Look at Iraq's New Interim Government

By The Associated Press
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040601/D82U80U00.html

Details on key members of Iraq's new interim government.

_Prime Minister Iyad Allawi: U.S.-backed Shiite Muslim with military and CIA connections. His power base, the Iraqi National Accord, made up largely of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party and former military men, stresses secularism and counts Sunnis and Shiites among its members.

_President Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer: Prominent Sunni member of the Shammar tribe, which includes Shiite clans and is one of the largest tribes in the Gulf region. The presidency is a largely ceremonial post.

_Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari: A leader of the Shiite Muslim Dawa Islamic Party.

_Vice President Rowsch Shaways: Parliament speaker in the Kurdish autonomous region in Irbil and member of Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of two rival parties running northern Iraq.

_Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari: Since his appointment in July as foreign minister of Iraq's interim government, the 51-year-old Zebari has traveled worldwide to canvass support for what he calls a new, united and democratic Iraq. Iraq's first Kurdish foreign minister was a guerrilla fighter during Kurdish rebellions against ousted Iraqi leader Saddam.

_Deputy Prime Minister for National Security Affairs Barham Saleh: Close to the Americans, a leader of one of the main Iraqi Kurdish groups, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

_Interior Minister Falah Hassan: Provincial official in Tikrit, Saddam's home region. Son of Gen. Hassan al-Naqib, a former deputy chief of staff under Saddam who defected in the late 1970s and became active in the exiled opposition.

_Finance Minister Adil Abdel-Mahdi: French-educated son of a respected Shiite cleric who was a minister in Iraq's monarchy. Official of the powerful Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

_Oil Minister Thamir Ghadbhan: Has been directing oil matters for months, since first being appointed by the U.S. Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.

_Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan: As elected president of Iraq's Lawyers League after Saddam's fall, had lodged early protests about the conditions under which the U.S.-led occupation administration was holding prisoners and about the prisoners' lack of legal defense. Had been a political prisoner under Saddam. Was culture minister in the mid-1960s.