IBRAHIM JAAFARI: PRIME MINISTER Ibrahim Jaafari, a 58-year-old physician, was spokesman for the Islamic Daawa Party, one of Iraq's oldest political parties. Born in Karbala in 1947, he was educated at Mosul university as a medical doctor. He lived in Iran and UK from the 1980s until the fall of Saddam Hussein. When he was serving in the mainly ceremonial role of vice-president in the US-appointed interim regime, an opinion poll last year suggested Mr Jaafari was Iraq's most popular politician. Mr Jaafari is widely seen as a unifying figure, keen to bring Sunni Arabs into the democratic fold after their widespread absence from election polling stations.
Posted: 05/09 - From: BBC
AHMED CHALABI: DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER Ahmed Chalabi's appointment as a deputy prime minister is something of a revival for a man once touted at the Pentagon as a future president of Iraq, but who fell dramatically from grace. During 2004 the Shia politician saw his home and offices raided and an arrest warrant issued amid accusations of counterfeiting. Mr Chalabi, who had the ear of many in Washington during the run-up to war, fell out with his former patrons as the invasion of Iraq turned to messy occupation. There were whispers from Washington that Mr Chalabi, a Shia, had all along been duping the Americans by spying for the Iranians, which he has denied.
RUZ NURI SHAWIS: DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER Before taking up the position of vice-president in the interim Iraqi government that was formed in June 2004, Mr Shawis was president of the Kurdistan National Assembly - the Iraqi Kurdish parliament based in Irbil. He is a senior member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
ABID MUTLAK AL-JUBOURI: DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER A Sunni Arab, and a former major general in Saddam's army who rose to prominence during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
SAADOUN AL-DULAIMI: DEFENCE MINISTER A Sunni Arab and reportedly a moderate, whose family has its roots in the western al-Anbar province, one of the most active hotbeds of the insurgency. He is thought to be close to Sunni Vice-President Ghazi Yawer. A former army lieutenant colonel, he left Iraq in the 1980s. He was active in opposition to Saddam Hussein, who sentenced him to death in absentia and confiscated his assets. Fluent in English, he has a PhD in social psychology from the UK's Keele University, and has taught in Jordan and the US.
IBRAHIM BAHR AL ULOUM: OIL MINISTER The son of a highly respected Shia cleric from Najaf and leading member of the former governing council, Mr Uloum held the oil ministry portfolio in the interim government between September 2003 and June 2004.
BAQIR SOLAGH: INTERIOR MINISTER Sometimes know as Bayan Jabr, he is a senior official of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri). A Shia Turkmen, Mr Solagh ran Sciri's office in Damascus during the 1990s, and represented the council in Lebanon and Syria from his base in Beirut.
HOSHYAR ZEBARI: FOREIGN MINISTER Mr Zebari was the foreign spokesman for the Kurdistan Democratic Party for more than 10 years. He frequently represented the KDP in meetings with US State Department officials throughout the 1990s. He was born in 1953 in the Kurdish town of Aqrah, but grew up in the mainly Arab city of Mosul. He is a graduate of the University of Essex in the UK.
BARHAM SALIH: MINISTER OF PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION An official of President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan since 1998, Mr Salih became prime minister of the PUK-led regional government in January 2001. He survived an assassination attempt at his home in April 2002. He joined the Iraqi transitional government in June 2004 as deputy prime minister for security affairs.
SAMI AL-MUDHAFFAR: HIGHER EDUCATION MINISTER One of the most senior biochemists in Iraq, Mr Mudhaffar is also a former president of Baghdad University. He has been instrumental in promoting biochemistry and related subjects such as molecular biotechnology research. He has published more than 50 inventions and 250 scientific papers. He was education minister in the transitional government.
NISRIN BARWARI: MINISTER OF MUNICIPALITIES AND PUBLIC WORKS A Kurd from Irbil, Ms Barwari is a close ally of Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani. Born in 1967, she became a political prisoner at the age of 14 and fled Iraq after the 1991 Kurdish uprising. She worked for the UN in northern Iraq, including as head of the Centre for Human Settlements field office in 1997. She received an MA at Harvard University in public administration in 1999, before becoming minister of reconstruction and development in the Kurdish regional government. She continues with the portfolio she took in the transitional government in September 2003.
JUWAN FOUAD MASUM: TELECOMMUNICATIONS MINISTER A female member of the PUK with a PhD in communications from King's College, London, Ms Masum has been active in the Kurdistan human rights community. Born in 1970, she is the daughter of Fouad Masum, the former speaker of Iraq's interim parliament.
ALI ABDEL AMIR ALLAWI: FINANCE MINISTER A Shia based in London until the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Mr Allawi was once an adviser to the Arab Monetary Fund in Kuwait. He became minister of trade in September 2003, and was given the first defence portfolio in the transitional government in April 2004.
LATIF RASHID: MINISTER OF WATER RESOURCES A former PUK official, Mr Rashid took on his current portfolio as a member of the transitional government in September 2003.
NARMIN OTHMAN: MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT AND ACTING HUMAN RIGHTS MINISTER Narmin Othman has been minister of state for women's affairs in the Iraqi transitional government since June 2004.
ABDEL BASIT KARIM MAWLOUD: TRADE MINISTER A PUK member and former legal adviser to Barham Salih, Mr Mawloud was active in the Kurdish armed force known as the peshmerga.
SALAM AL-MALIKI: TRANSPORT MINISTER A Shia, Mr Maliki is the former deputy governor of Basra for administrative affairs and a member of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's political movement. In August 2004, Mr Maliki threatened to shut down the port of Basra and halt oil exports to protest against the US-led military campaign against Mr Sadr's forces in Najaf. He urged Shias in several southern cities to secede from the interim government and form their own autonomous region.
IDRIS HADI: MINISTER OF LABOUR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS A KDP member, Mr Hadi was a human rights and communications minister in Kurdistan's regional government.
ABDEL MUTTALIB MOHAMMED ALI: HEALTH MINISTER A major in the first Gulf War who later became Iraq's commercial attache to Germany, he is linked to Moqtada al-Sadr.
OTHER MINISTERS: - Mohsen Shlash: Electricity minister - Usama al-Najafi: Industry minister - Hashim al-Shible: Human rights minister - rejected the post after being approved by parliament on 8 May, saying he had not been consulted. - Jasim Mohammed Jaafar: Minister of construction and housing - Abdel Falah Hassan: Education minister - Ali al-Bahadili: Agriculture minister - Abdel Hussein Shandal: Justice minister - Nuri Farhan al-Rawi: Culture minister - Basimah Yusuf Butrus: Minister of science and technology - Suhaylah Abd-Jaafar: Minister of displacement and migration - Talib Aziz Zayni: Minister of youth and sports - Abd-al-Karim al-Anzi: Minister of state for national security affairs - Saad Nayif Mujhim al-Hardan: Minister of state for governorate affairs - Ala Habib Kazim: Minister of state for civil society affairs - Azhar Abdel Karim al-Shaikhli: Minister of state for women's affairs - Hashim al-Hashimi: Acting minister of state for tourism and antiquities - Safa al-Din Mohammed al-Safi: Minister of state for National Assembly affairs
