The US was last night locked in a dispute with Iraqi leaders over who should be the country's president when power is handed over on June 30.

The behavior of Mr Bremer and Mr Brahimi has been shameful. It's like being in a dictatorship again. Adnan follows the Americans around like a puppy. If the Americans told Adnan that yogurt was black, he would go along with it.

Dr Mahmoud Othman, a leading Iragi Governing Council member

The US governor of Iraq, Paul Bremer, and the UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, insisted the job should go to Adnan Pachachi, an 81-year-old former foreign minister. But the Iraqi governing council demanded that the largely ceremonial post should go to Sheikh Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawar, an Arab businessman in his 40s who has criticized the US-led occupation and who is the council's president.

The row threatens to delay the appointment of a new interim government. A ceremony scheduled for today appeared last night to have been postponed.

On Friday the governing council voted unanimously to endorse Ayad Allawi, a British-educated neurosurgeon with close links to the CIA, as the new prime minister - a move that seems to have caught Mr Brahimi by surprise.

At a stormy governing council meeting yesterday, Mr Bremer bluntly warned members not to hold another vote on who should be the new president. If they did he would ignore it.

"The behavior of Mr Bremer and Mr Brahimi has been shameful," Dr Mahmoud Othman, a leading council member told the Guardian. "It's like being in a dictatorship again. Adnan follows the Americans around like a puppy. If the Americans told Adnan that yogurt was black, he would go along with it."

Yesterday the coalition's spokesman, Dan Senor, denied that the US favored Mr Pachachi. "We are not urging any one candidate," he said.

Mr Bremer's tough stance in support of Mr Pachachi, a former exile who served as Iraq's foreign minister before the Ba'ath party seized power in 1968, was unexpected. The Americans had previously indicated that they were primarily interested in approving the choice for prime minister.

The governing council is due to meet again today, amid rumors that a mystery third candidate could emerge.

Council members admitted that the row was the main stumbling block to an agreement on the entire cabinet, due to be unveiled this week, which will hold power until Iraqi elections next January.

The bickering has done little to help the new government's credibility. "The people were never involved in the political process for 35 years. So what's new," Kareem Mahmoud, a Baghdad street vendor said.

Sheikh Ghazi took over as head of the governing council earlier this month after the assassination of his predecessor, Izzedin Salim.

Both he and Mr Pachachi are Sunni Arabs. But while Mr Pachachi wears western suits, Sheikh Ghazi dresses in traditional Arab robes and headgear.

Yesterday a source close to Sheikh Ghazi said Mr Bremer and Mr Brahimi asked him to step down in favor of Mr Pachachi. He was apparently offered the post of cabinet spokesman or ambassador in Washington. The sheikh told them to seek the governing council's opinion.

In a recent television interview, he blamed America for Iraq's problems. "They occupied the country, disbanded the security agencies and for 10 months left Iraq's borders open for anyone to come in without a visa or passport."

Mr Pachachi fled to the United Arab Emirates after the Ba'ath party seized power. He is well connected with the US, and pro-US states in the Gulf.

Last night senior Iraqi politicians admitted that despite Mr Brahimi's promise to bring in "non-political" faces and technocrats, the new Iraqi government looked suspiciously like the old one. "The difference this time is that it does have powers and will have international recognition," Dr Othman admitted.

"Until there are elections, no government can really lay claim to credibility."

· Masked gunmen ambushed a convoy of armored vehicles carrying western civilians in north-west Baghdad last night, killing at least four Iraqis and abducting three westerners, police said.

A Guardian translator who arrived on the scene soon after the incident said locals were dancing around two burning four-wheel-drive vehicles, chanting "victory to the Arabs". Police said up to eight men in Arab dress had fired on the convoy from a bridge.

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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