The British-trained doctor, 64, was provisionally appointed prime minister by Washington in June 2004 and led a transitional government for just under a year.

Allawi, a Shiite, had been a member of Saddam's now-banned Baath party until 1971 but fell foul of the executed dictator and went into exile in Britain, where Iraqi agents tried to murder him.

His Iraqiya list includes several Sunni parties, including the National Dialogue Front of Saleh al-Mutlak, who was barred from taking part in the poll separately over his alleged Baathist links.

In an interview with AFP before the election, Allawi denounced the commission that banned more than 500 candidates allegedly linked to Saddam before their reinstatement, as well as the United States for joining the row.

"We reject... interference in the work of institutions and we reject actions that bring into question the principle of sovereignty and respect for the constitution," he said at the time.

In his most recent comments, Allawi told the BBC on Saturday that his priority would be to "purge the armed forces and secret services of sectarian elements" if he should form Iraq's next government.

The police force was "riddled with sectarianism," he charged, pinning much of the blame on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki with whom he said he would refuse to work in a coalition unless he changed his outlook.

Allawi had called for a probe into the vote's organisers after casting his ballot on March 7, accusing them of lax procedures and demanding an accurate recount.

"I'd like to record my objection to the performance of the IHEC (Independent High Electoral Commission)," he said in comments broadcast on Al-Sharqiya television channel.

But those comments came well before the results started to swing his way.

The neurosurgeon turned politician won credibility during his interim term as premier for ruthlessly facing down the insurgency despite widespread corruption allegations.

Yet his unflinching support for US military campaigns against Sunni and Shiite insurgents in Fallujah and Najaf left him with few friends there.

His image of tough leadership was dented by attacks during campaigning for December 2005 elections in the holy city of Najaf, when he came under a hail of shoes and tomatoes.

He later charged it had been an assassination attempt.

It would not have been the first. In 2005, he thanked the Lebanese Shiite secular movement Amal for thwarting an assassination attempt against him during a visit to Lebanon.

However, his most famous escape came in 1978, when an assailant, probably sent by Saddam, attacked him with an axe and left him for dead during his London exile.

Allawi has excellent political and family credentials. His grandfather helped negotiate Iraq's independence from the British in the 1930s, and an uncle was health minister under the old monarchy, which fell in 1958.

An uncle on his mother's side was prime minister of Lebanon in 1973.

But this pedigree also comes with the baggage of a long exile and links to former Baathists, not to mention the CIA, which have made many Iraqis suspicious of Allawi.

In 1991, together with former Iraqi military and Baathists, Allawi formed the Iraqi National Accord, under CIA tutelage, which staged an unsuccessful coup against Saddam in 1996.

Allawi launched his broad secular Iraqiya alliance in January this year to contest the March election.

"We have a feeling of victory and pride because other political coalitions gave up the way of the nation, which left us marginalised, excluded and persecuted," he said at the time.

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