Ibrahim al-Jaafari, head of the Shiite Islamic Dawa Party, was named Iraqi prime minister on Thursday.

BAGHDAD, April 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Ibrahim al-Jaafari, head of the Shiite Islamic Dawa Party, was named by the newly sworn-in presidential council to the post of Iraqi prime minister on Thursday.

    The move was made shortly after Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, was sworn in as the country's transitional president along with his two deputies Adel Abdul Mahdi and Ghazi Yawar.

    At a press conference after the inauguration, parliamentary speaker Hachim Hassani said the outgoing prime minister Iyad Allawihad submitted his resignation, but it remained unknown if he would stay in the post any longer.

    Separately, Jaafari said he will try to end the heated debate over key posts soon to pave the way for establishing a new government.

    "I have a month to form a cabinet, but I hope I can do it withintwo weeks," he told reporters.

    Jaafari's Dawa Party, the first Iraqi Islamic political party, has been allied with other Shiite movements in an influential bloc that won a slight majority in the Jan. 30 parliamentary elections.

    The Kurdish list, which came second in the landmark polls, has demanded the crucial portfolio of the oil ministry, a post also coveted by the Shiites.

    Shiites and Kurds have also been eager to involve the minority Sunnis into political landscape in order not to further alienate the marginalized community or incite any national strife. Enditem