Iraq's winning Shiite list named Ibrahim Jaafari as its candidate for premiership in the new government, the alliance said Tuesday.  (Photo: Yahoo/AFP)

    BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraq's winning Shiite list named Ibrahim Jaafari as its candidate for premiership in the new government, the alliance said Tuesday.

    "The United Iraqi Alliance announces the nomination of Dr. Ibrahim Jaafari unanimously as a candidate for the new prime minister post," head of the alliance Abdul Aziz al-Hakim told reporters.

    Jaafari is head of the Islamic Dawa Party, a major party forming the alliance besides the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) led by Hakim.

    He became the only candidate for the alliance after Ahmed Chalabi, head of the National Congress party, withdrew.

    "The idea of a secret voting had been considered but it was no longer necessary when Ahmed Chalabi withdrew at the last minute," said Jawad Maliki, spokesman for the Dawa Party.

    Chalabi said he dropped out of the race "for the unity of the alliance," but he did not say if he had been offered a post in thenew government.

    In the Jan. 30 elections, the United Iraqi Alliance won over 48percent of the votes, enabling it to garner about 140 seats in the275-member National Assembly.

    Incumbent interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, however, won only14 percent of the votes in the elections, and was nominated for the same job on Monday.

    Although US-backed Allawi is expected to face a tough challengefrom Jaafari, who has been accused by Washington of meddling in Iraqi affairs and aiding the insurgency, the US government declared Tuesday that it will work with any new government that emerges in Iraq.

    US State Department Richard Boucher said that the United Statesis "looking forward to working with whatever Iraqi government emerges." "And we're looking forward to having a constructive relationship with the whole transitional government," Boucher tolda news briefing.

    As the political reconstruction process in Iraq continues, insurgents kept on initiating more deadly attacks.

    A car bomb exploded near the headquarters of a major Kurdish party in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing four people and wounding 30 others. "Three Iraqi soldiers and one civilian were killed, and about 30 others were injured in the blast," medical sources at theYarmuk Hospital told Xinhua.

    The attack appeared to be targeting at a passing Iraqi militaryconvoy, sending parts of the vehicle across the nearby Mansour Square outside the Green Zone, a heavily fortified area housing the interim Iraqi government and the US and British embassies.

    The mid-day blast was also near the Baghdad office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by Kurdish heavyweight Jalal Talabani, a front runner for the presidency.

    On the same day, Pentagon reiterates its tough stance not to negotiate with Iraqi insurgents. Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita said that negotiations with insurgents "aren't for the United States to conduct, and to my knowledge, we're not conducting negotiations."

    DiRita said he knew of no independent activity going on either by the US military or by the US embassy concerning negotiations with Iraqi insurgents.

    In another development, US President George W. Bush won supportfrom European allies, including Iraq war opponents, to train Iraq's security forces and help rebuild the country on Tuesday.

    Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, whose country holds the rotating European Union (EU) presidency, said the UnitedStates and the EU had proposed a joint conference to rally international efforts to rebuild Iraq.

    The EU has also offered to train Iraqi police and judges, and help write a constitution for the country's first democratically elected government.

    Before Bush's planned visit to Germany, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said that "We now have a common interest in the stabilization and democratic development in Iraq." Enditem