BAGHDAD, Feb 16 (AFP) - The Shiite list that won Iraq's elections has agreed to present Vice President Ibrahim Jaafari as its candidate for the premiership, as parties haggled over the makeup of the next executive.
And one of Turkey's richest businessmen, Kahraman Sadikoglu, arrived back in Turkey a day after he was freed in Iraq after almost two months as a hostage.
Jaafari, the man now poised to succeed Iyad Allawi and become Iraq's first elected premier since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003, is a popular politician who heads the country's oldest Shiite party, Dawa.
"In two or three days it will probably be announced that Mr. Jaafari is the candidate for the premiership. We anticipate this to happen in a few days," Jaafari's deputy, Adnan Ali, told AFP.
A source from the rival Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq confirmed that its own candidate, Finance Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, had dropped out of the race.
"Doctor Jaafari was chosen after discussions with the other lists and agreement on this question was reached yesterday (Monday)," said United Iraqi Alliance candidate and SCIRI member Janan al-Obeidi.
The main Shiite coalition backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani -- the top Shiite cleric in Iraq -- is set to control more than half of the seats in the 275-member National Assembly and is widely expected to be handed the premiership.
The joint ticket on which the two main Kurdish parties ran also made a strong showing in the January 30 general elections, for which results were announced on Sunday, and could determine the presidency.
The Sunni Arab minority, which scored poorly and will be almost absent from parliament, could yet be handed the post of parliamentary speaker, as part of a general effort to involve the disempowered community in the upcoming drafting of a new constitution.
But leading Sunni groups reiterated their call for a withdrawal timetable for US troops to be announced before they drop their boycott and enter the political arena.
Some fear a marginalization of the former Sunni elite could further fuel an insurgency, which has killed thousands and crippled the economy since the March 2003 US-led invasion.
Officials and experts have predicted that haggling would carry on for several days before all key positions were announced simultaneously.
But the election results were not yet definitive as the commission was still investigating complaints lodged against the results.
"We have received three complaints," electoral commission official Adel al-Lami told AFP, refusing to specify their origin and content.
On Monday, US President George W. Bush asked lawmakers for 81.9 billion dollars for the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as for Indian Ocean tsunami relief.
"This request reflects urgent and essential requirements. I ask the Congress to appropriate the funds as requested and promptly send the bill to me for signature," he said in a statement.
It includes 7.4 billion dollars to accelerate the training of local security forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bush has made the latter a precondition for withdrawing the roughly 140,000 US forces in Iraq.
It also includes 717 million dollars for US embassy and security expenses in Iraq, including 658 million to build a permanent facility for US diplomats in Baghdad.
Meanwhile, Turkish shipping magnate Kahraman Sadikoglu, who was seized by kidnappers on December 19, returned home after his release Monday in the south of Iraq. He flew into Istanbul airport on a private plane.
An unconfirmed report said his family had paid a ransom of 500,000 dollars.
Three companions seized with him, two Turks and an Iraqi, were freed last month.
Some 80 Turks, most of them truck drivers plying Iraqi roads, have been killed in recent months. A number of Turkish companies active in Iraq ceased operations in return for the release of employees taken hostage.
Five Iraqis were killed in insurgent attacks since late Monday, most of them members of the country's fledgling army and police forces, security sources said.
In London, The Independent daily reported Wednesday that British troops may face new charges in Iraq as investigators explore fresh allegations of civilian deaths.
The left-wing daily said it had uncovered evidence about the deaths of six Iraqi civilians in the British-controlled south of the country, whose families allege they were killed by British soldiers.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense in London had no immediate information on the report.

02/16/2005 01:49 GMT - AFP