Sepcial Report: Tension accelerates in Iraq

    LONDON, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahimal-Jaafari has defiantly refused to step aside in spite of U.S. and British pleas for an end to the deadlock which has paralyzed the country for almost four months, a local newspaper reported on Wednesday.

    In an interview with the Guardian conducted in Baghdad, al-Jaafari said he had rejected U.S. and British calls for giving up the nomination of his Shiite bloc in order "to protect democracy in Iraq."

    "I heard their points of view even though I disagree with them," he told the Guardian.

    Al-Jaafari won the nomination for Iraq's leadership by a single vote within the Shiite bloc that came out on top in last December's election.

    But his bloc controls less than half of the seats in parliament, and so long as the Sunni, Kurdish and secular parties refuse to back him, Iraq is left in a political vacuum.

    "There is a decision that was reached by a democratic mechanism and I stand with it," he said. "We have to protect democracy in Iraq and it is democracy which should decide who leads Iraq. We have to respect our Iraqi people."

    Nevertheless, pressure is mounting on al-Jaafari to step aside, even from within his Shiite political alliance.

    During an interview Tuesday with the British Broadcasting Corp., Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahadi said he met with al-Jaafari the day before and urged him to give up the nomination because he had lost the confidence of the Sunnis and Kurds. Enditem