By Tom Perry
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iyad Allawi, a member of Iraq (news - web sites)'s U.S.-appointed Governing Council with long-time links to the CIA (news - web sites), has been chosen as prime minister in Iraq's interim government, an aide to Allawi told Reuters Friday.
"There was a meeting of the Governing Council and Dr. Allawi was unanimously chosen as prime minister," Hani Adris said.
He added that U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and the U.S.-run occupation authority in Iraq had endorsed that choice.
Other Governing Council sources confirmed the selection.
The interim government will take over running the country from the United States on June 30. Brahimi is helping select a 30-member team, including a president and 26 ministers.
Allawi, a wealthy secular Shi'ite Muslim and former member of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s Baath Party, is a relative of Ahmad Chalabi, a former Pentagon (news - web sites) favorite who has fallen out with Washington.
Though related, Chalabi and Allawi are not believed to get along. Chalabi was himself long seen as Washington's likely choice to lead post-Saddam Iraq.
After turning against Saddam, Allawi went into exile and in 1990 formed the Iraqi National Accord, a party backed by the CIA and British intelligence and including many former Baathists who opposed the Baghdad regime.
Another relative of Allawi's, Ali Allawi, was recently named Iraqi defense minister, although it is not guaranteed that he will keep that position once the interim government is formed.
Brahimi has spent the past few weeks in Iraq negotiating with the U.S.-appointed Governing Council and the U.S.-led administration in Iraq over who should be named to the interim government.
That government, which is expected to be named in the next few days, will comprise a president and two vice presidents, a prime minister and 26 ministers.
It was widely expected that the prime minister would be from the long oppressed Shi'ite community, which is the 60 percent majority in Iraq. The president is expected to be from the formerly dominant Sunni Muslim community and the vice presidents are likely to be a Shi'ite and a Kurd.
Allawi is considered politically well connected in Washington and London and has extensive business dealings, and is also said to have close relations with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
(Additional reporting by Luke Baker and Michael Georgy)