Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi called for Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari to step aside, but said that the incumbent Shiite premier wanted his exit to be decided by the parliament.

Iraqi men, holding posters of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, demonstrate in Baghdad's Sadr City, 4 April in a show of support for the embattled leader. Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi called for Jaafari to step aside, but said that the incumbent Shiite premier wanted his exit to be decided by the parliament. [AFP]

"Even in the UIA there is some rejection, I think that he should step aside," Mahdi, who himself was a candidate for the top job, told BBC's Hard Talk program Tuesday, using the acronym for the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA).

"One of the conditions (of his job) was the acceptance of others also," he added.

Sunnis, Kurds and secular politicians have publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with Jaafari, while more and more members of his alliance are calling for him to step down as well.

But so far Jaafari has refused to give up his candidacy.

He told The Guardian newspaper he would not give way to other candidates who have wider support.

"There is a decision that was reached by a democratic mechanism and I stand with it... We have to protect democracy in Iraq and it is democracy which should decide who leads Iraq," he was quoted as saying.

"We have to respect our Iraqi people."

Abdel Mahdi told the BBC that Jaafari wants to "stick to his nomination and he is willing to go the parliament."

"He said he would welcome the decision of the parliament."

Abdel Mahdi, however, gave a clear signal that he was waiting to take the country's reins in his hands once Jaafari steps down.

"I was a candidate for it, so likely when I am candidate so I am working for it," he said indicating that he was keen on the top job.

Jaafari's candidacy for the premiership has become one of the main stumbling blocks in talks to set up a coalition government more than three months after the elections.

Sunni and Kurdish parties as well as others in Jaafari's dominant Shiite bloc have called for him to step down because of his failure to curb growing sectarian violence.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw visited Baghdad last weekend and held talks with Jaafari, Abdel Mahdi and Iraq's Kurdish head of state Jalal Talabani.

Jaafari told The Guardian of Rice and Straw's pleas for a swift end to the dispute to prevent further violence: "I heard their points of view even though I disagree with them."

Iraqi leaders shelved talks Tuesday on forming a government despite a warning from Rice and Straw.

The formation of the first permanent post-Saddam government has been delayed due to bitter wrangling over key ministerial posts and the premiership.

Splits have appeared in the dominant conservative Shiite grouping, the United Iraqi Alliance, over the key sticking point of whether Jaafari should lead the new government.

Several Shiite parliamentarians have called for Jaafari's withdrawal.