Influential Iraqi Muslm cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani gave his conditional approval to the interim government today but said it had "mammoth tasks" ahead.
Sistani said the government, chosen by the United Nations, the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and US officials, lacked "electoral legitimacy" but said it remained a step in the right direction and would succeed if specific goals were met.
"The hope is that this government will prove its worthiness and integrity and its firm readiness to perform the mammoth tasks it is burdened with," the Shia cleric said in a partly hand-written statement issued by his office in the holy city of Najaf and stamped with his official seal.
Sistani, who holds huge sway over Iraq's 60 per cent Shia majority, listed four key tasks that the government had to tackle - security, basic services for all, a new UN resolution granting Iraqi full sovereignty and the organising of free-and-fair elections early next year.
"The new government will not have popular acceptance unless it proves through practical and clear steps that it seeks diligently and seriously to achieve these tasks," Sistani said.