"Chalabi is one of the recognised leaders of the opposition to Saddam Hussein, we also have contacts with a number of other leaders," they said when asked if he was the Americans' favourite.

"The decison as to who should be the leader of the new Iraq is an Iraqi decision," said the officials, on condition of anonymity, briefing media at US Central Command.

"I don't think we are in the business of anointing someone," they said.

The remarks came a day before the first meeting of Iraqi opposition groups since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, at which the United States is expected to lay out its vision of a post-war Iraq.

An internal feud has emerged in Washington between the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency on one side and the Pentagon and parts of the White House on the other -- much of it surrounding Chalabi.

Chalabi has riled the CIA and State Department with his flamboyant style and pronouncements, even though only two weeks ago the State Department restored some funding to his Iraqi National Congress suspended last year over management concerns.

SPACE.WIRE