After weeks of talks, new Iraqi prime minister named

BAGHDAD－Iraq's president named former communications minister Mohammad Allawi as the country's new prime minister on Saturday after an 11th-hour consensus among political blocs.

The selection of Allawi, 66, to replace Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who resigned as prime minister in December, was the product of many backroom talks between rival parties.

Baghdad and the mainly Shiite south have been gripped by four months of anti-government rallies demanding snap elections, a politically independent prime minister and accountability for corruption and protest-related violence.

Frustrated by the delays and worried about further instability, President Barham Saleh gave political blocs until Saturday to nominate a new prime minister, sending them into crisis talks that produced a consensus on Allawi.

On Saturday evening Allawi addressed Iraqis on state television, pledging to form a representative government, hold early parliamentary elections and ensure justice for protest-related violence－all key demands of protesters.

More than 480 people have died and nearly 30,000 have been injured in protest-related violence since October but few have been held accountable for the bloodshed.

"This nomination places a huge, historic responsibility on my shoulders," Allawi said in his TV address.

He had earlier posted a video to Twitter announcing the nomination.

"I will ask you to keep up the protests, because if you are not with me, I won't be able to do anything," he said in colloquial Iraqi dialect. Mahdi congratulated his successor, and the United Nations welcomed the move.

"The prime minister-designate faces a monumental task," said the UN's top official in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.

"The United Nations has called time and again on all stakeholders to rise above partisanship and place the national interest first. Now is the time to act."

Within minutes of the announcement, many in Baghdad's main protest camp of Tahrir Square began chanting "Allawi is rejected, Allawi is rejected!"

Demonstrators took to the streets in the holy city of Najaf, pledging to escalate their movement further, saying Allawi was not the independent they had demanded.

Under the constitution, Allawi has one month to form a cabinet, which will be put to parliament for a vote of confidence.

Allawi said in his TV address that he would reject any ministerial candidate nominated by political parties and would build a cabinet based on competence, not connections.

Agencies via Xinhua