Former Kurdish rebel leader named as Iraq's president

IRAQ’S new president, Jalal Talabani, a former Kurdish guerrilla leader, yesterday vowed to unite the country and appealed to "our brothers" among the insurgents to stop fighting the United States-led coalition.

Mr Talabani’s appointment - he is the first non-Arab president of any Arab state - was a compromise designed to appease the independent-minded Kurdish minority.

Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite Muslim, and interim president Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni, were chosen as Mr Talabani’s two vice-presidents by the country’s fledgling parliament.

The three were the only candidates and stood unopposed after weeks of negotiations. They received 227 votes with 30 ballots left blank, apparently in a sign of protest.

Iraq’s new president will play a mostly ceremonial role in the new government, likely to be led by Ibrahim al-Jafari, a Shiite politician expected to be chosen as prime minister today.

The parliamentary speaker, Hajem al-Hassani, said after the vote: "This is the new Iraq - an Iraq that elects a Kurd to be president and an Arab former president as his deputy. What more could the world want from us?"

Standing before the Iraqi flag, Mr Talabani welcomed his selection and vowed to heal the country’s wounds following the invasion that led to the fall of Saddam Hussein. "We will spare no effort to present Iraq as a model of democracy," he said.

"We hope to consolidate national unity ... regardless of religious and sectarian backgrounds." He added: "All Arabs, Kurds and other nationalities have the same rights."

Mr Talabani made a call to Iraqis who joined the insurgents to defend their country from invasion. "Those Iraqis who are carrying arms to fight foreign troops, they are our brothers we can talk to, to reach a result," he said.

He called on neighbouring countries to help prevent foreign insurgents from crossing into Iraq and said his government would work to provide security so that the coalition’s forces "could return home after the completion of building [Iraqi] armed forces that are capable of finishing off terrorism".

Mr Talabani, 72, is expected to be formally sworn in today and then to name Mr al-Jaafari as prime minister, clearing the way for talks on a new constitution scheduled to be completed by 15 August.

The new president is a seasoned rebel, who

joined an underground student organisation at the age of 13 and spent most of his adult life as a leader of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in a guerrilla war against the Baghdad government.