But he has the advantage as prime minister - to paraphrase one commentator - of being equally mistrusted by everyone in Iraq's multifarious population.

Mr Allawi has received the endorsement of some Washington departments

Religious leaders think he is too secular, the US-led coalition now sees him as a critic, for the anti-Saddam opposition he is an ex-Baathist, while ordinary Iraqis say he is a CIA man.

Born in 1945 to a prominent Shia Muslim merchant family, Mr Allawi trained as a neurologist and joined the Baath party underground movement as a young man.

But when the party came to power, he fell out with the rising hard man Saddam Hussein in the early 1970s and was forced to go into exile.

He was badly wounded in an assassination attempt while living in the UK in 1978, believed to have been ordered by Saddam Hussein.

Well-connected

Mr Allawi went on to co-found the Iraqi National Accord (INA) party, which is known for attracting disillusioned former Baathists from the military and security fields.

From its foundation in 1991, with the backing of the US Central Intelligence Agency and British intelligence, the group supported the idea of fostering a coup from within the Iraqi army to overthrow Saddam Hussein, but its attempts ended disastrously.

Correspondents say Mr Allawi is well-connected politically in Washington and London, has extensive business dealings and has close relations with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Since joining the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, he has publicly opposed the purging of members of Baath party from government positions.