Jury out in Iraq on PM-designate Maliki

BAGHDAD, Apr 23 (Reuters) Prime Minister-designate Jawad al-Maliki won mixed reviews on Iraq's streets today, being variously described as a strongman who can make tough choices, a divisive sectarian and an unknown living in protected isolation.

Such feelings testify to the obstacles Maliki, a tough- talking Shi'ite tasked by parliament yesterday with heading Iraq's new government, will face in building a united country.

''Jawad al-Maliki is the best choice for prime minister because he is a balance between leniency and strength,'' said Haider Hamoudi, a vegetable seller in the Shi'ite city of Najaf, where, predictably, support for fellow Shi'ite Maliki is high.

Abdel Hafidh a photographer in religiously mixed Baquba, which has seen many sectarian attacks involving Sunnis and Shi'ites, took the opposite view on Maliki.

''He is not good. He is a hateful sectarian who has made venomous comments against Iraq and Arabs,'' he said. ''Jawad al-Maliki is the final nail in Iraq's coffin.'' In the Kurdish city of Arbil, in the mountainous north, some said they had never heard of Maliki, who has vowed to unify Iraq's Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

''I don't know who Jawad al-Maliki is. Time will prove who he is, whether he is efficient or not, because all politicians when they occupy government posts achieve nothing,'' said Samir Abdullah, a 25-year-old handyman.

NO EASY SOLUTIONS Although Maliki's designation was welcomed by the United States, Iraqis fed up with bloodshed and poor services want swift solutions that Maliki cannot possibly deliver.

Baghdad woke up today to the familiar sound of a rocket attack, which the Ministry of Defence said killed five people.

And police found the bodies of six young men -- hands and feet bound and with gunshots to their heads -- in a Baghdad district where sectarian tensions sparked gun battles last week.

Bodies bearing signs of torture turn up every day in Baghdad.

''Citizens don't care about who will be the next prime minister.

All they want is the government to handle the deteriorating security situation and the lack of basic services,'' said Aamar Khalil, a Turkmen supermarket owner in the ethnically-mixed, disputed city of Kirkuk.

Some of the many newspapers that have flourished since former President Saddam Hussein was ousted had solemn words to describe the breakthrough, which ended four months of paralysis.

Al-Sabah called it the ''beginning of a new era.'' Al-Mutamar said it was a ''historical day.'' Maliki, who has yet to present a plan to solve Iraq's many crises, will have to move fast if he does not want to disappoint Iraqis, many of whom see politicians as men who returned to power after years in exile only to live behind US blast walls.

''I don't think the new prime minister will do much because the previous government's didn't do much'' said Imad Qadhom, a shop owner who sells reconstruction machinery.

''We are the ones who are suffering from the security dangers.

The government sits behind its safe fortified walls.'' REUTERS SRS PM1856