Iraq leaders meet as US presses for govt deal(Allawi could have a role)

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A senior government source told Reuters that the meeting scheduled to begin at the president's offices at 3 p.m. (1200 GMT) would focus on finalizing an agreement to set up a National Security Council. Negotiations on the make-up of the government itself would not resume until Saturday, the source said.

A spokesman for President Jalal Talabani said leaders of the main parliamentary parties elected in December would attend, although an aide to at least one of them, secular former prime minister Iyad Allawi, said he was unlikely to attend in person.

ALLAWI ROLE

Allawi, with powerful backers in Washington, is widely tipped among senior political sources to play a leading role in the new Security Council, which some portray as a powerful parallel administration whose creation could sidestep deadlock among Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds on forming a unity government.

Some Shi'ite Islamists are putting up resistance to such a deal, sources said. Campaigning against Allawi's cross-sectarian list in December, the Islamist Alliance compared the secular Shi'ite to Saddam Hussein, accusing him of dictatorial leanings.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060324/wl_nm/iraq_dc;_

The Sadr movement hates him. SCIRI doesn't much care for him.