The United Nations is expected to pick Mr Hussain Shahristani, a Shia Muslim nuclear scientist who spent 11 years in Abu Ghraib prison under Saddam Hussein, as premier of a new interim Iraqi government, US sources have indicated.
A State Department official said Mr Shahristani was one of three finalists being considered for the key post but other sources said Mr Shahristani was expected to head the new caretaker government when the United States hands over power on July 1st.
Asked if UN special envoy Mr Lakhdar Brahimi had made his choices, one source with close ties to the Bush administration said: "Shahristani for prime minister."
The State Department official said: "He is one of about three finalists who was being considered for prime minister. I do not know whether he was chosen and actually asked."
"It's pretty obvious it has to be a Shia. It also has to be someone who is not seen to be beholden any particular faction or party and yet not be so much of a technocrat that he has no standing with the parties," he said.