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Nuri al-Maliki
If he manages to keep his job, he would have held off election winner Iyad Allawi, himself a former prime minister, whose Iraqiya bloc won two more seats than Maliki's State of Law Alliance in March 7 elections.
After the polls, however, Maliki joined forces with the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a collection of Shiite religious groups that constitutes parliament's third-largest grouping, to form a pan-Shiite bloc called the National Alliance (NA).
While State of Law and the INA comprise 159 seats between them, four short of a majority, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council and Fadhila did not take part in the talks, removing 27 seats from the NA total.
Maliki, a former guerrilla, has forged a reputation for being a strong leader who could impose stability on the war-ravaged country. He also faced down accusations of sectarianism for not tackling Shiite militias in 2007.
He was born in the predominantly Shiite central province of Babil in 1950. He joined the Shiite Islamic Dawa Party -- the oldest Iraqi movement opposed to Saddam -- while at university.
Maliki, who holds an MA in Arabic Literature, fled Iraq in 1979 after Saddam banned the party, and Dawa says that he was later sentenced to death in absentia.
From 1980 onwards, he lived in Iran and then Syria.
He took the nom de guerre Jawad, later dropping it upon becoming prime minister, and initially began coordinating cross-border guerrilla raids from Iran into Iraq.
Upon moving to Syria, he began editing Dawa's newspaper in Damascus.
Maliki returned to Iraq after the US-led invasion of 2003 and became a member of the de-Baathification commission that removed Saddam supporters from public office.
In 2006, the owlish, suit-wearing, bespectacled Maliki, who is rarely seen smiling in public, was named premier after his predecessor Ibrahim al-Jaafari met stiff opposition from Sunnis and Kurds who regarded him as too sectarian.
At the time, violence was raging throughout Iraq, with thousands of people killed in intercommunal bloodshed.
In 2008, Maliki pushed an offensive against the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, winning plaudits for his apparent willingness to set aside communal interests for a nationalist agenda.
But while violence has dropped dramatically since its peak in 2006 and 2007, something Maliki has been quick to take credit for, analysts note that much of the decline had to do with a strengthened US troop presence and the co-opting of Sunni tribal groups to fight Al-Qaeda.
Maliki's message appeared to have resonated in January 2009, when allies of the premier campaigned under his State of Law banner and performed well in provincial elections.
His list's success emboldened him to split from the main Shiite bloc to create his own cross-sectarian alliance late last year.
The strategy was only partly successful, as his political grouping remains dominated by Shiite candidates with only a smattering of Sunnis and Kurds.
As a result, while State of Law fared well in predominantly Shiite areas, Allawi's Iraqiya received strong support from the Sunni-majority provinces.
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After the polls, however, Maliki joined forces with the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a collection of Shiite religious groups that constitutes parliament's third-largest grouping, to form a pan-Shiite bloc called the National Alliance (NA).
While State of Law and the INA comprise 159 seats between them, four short of a majority, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council and Fadhila did not take part in the talks, removing 27 seats from the NA total.
Maliki, a former guerrilla, has forged a reputation for being a strong leader who could impose stability on the war-ravaged country. He also faced down accusations of sectarianism for not tackling Shiite militias in 2007.
He was born in the predominantly Shiite central province of Babil in 1950. He joined the Shiite Islamic Dawa Party -- the oldest Iraqi movement opposed to Saddam -- while at university.
Maliki, who holds an MA in Arabic Literature, fled Iraq in 1979 after Saddam banned the party, and Dawa says that he was later sentenced to death in absentia.
From 1980 onwards, he lived in Iran and then Syria.
He took the nom de guerre Jawad, later dropping it upon becoming prime minister, and initially began coordinating cross-border guerrilla raids from Iran into Iraq.
Upon moving to Syria, he began editing Dawa's newspaper in Damascus.
Maliki returned to Iraq after the US-led invasion of 2003 and became a member of the de-Baathification commission that removed Saddam supporters from public office.
In 2006, the owlish, suit-wearing, bespectacled Maliki, who is rarely seen smiling in public, was named premier after his predecessor Ibrahim al-Jaafari met stiff opposition from Sunnis and Kurds who regarded him as too sectarian.
At the time, violence was raging throughout Iraq, with thousands of people killed in intercommunal bloodshed.
In 2008, Maliki pushed an offensive against the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, winning plaudits for his apparent willingness to set aside communal interests for a nationalist agenda.
But while violence has dropped dramatically since its peak in 2006 and 2007, something Maliki has been quick to take credit for, analysts note that much of the decline had to do with a strengthened US troop presence and the co-opting of Sunni tribal groups to fight Al-Qaeda.
Maliki's message appeared to have resonated in January 2009, when allies of the premier campaigned under his State of Law banner and performed well in provincial elections.
His list's success emboldened him to split from the main Shiite bloc to create his own cross-sectarian alliance late last year.
The strategy was only partly successful, as his political grouping remains dominated by Shiite candidates with only a smattering of Sunnis and Kurds.
As a result, while State of Law fared well in predominantly Shiite areas, Allawi's Iraqiya received strong support from the Sunni-majority provinces.
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