DUBAI: Former Iraqi army chief of staff General Nizar Khazraji has been picked by the United States to run Iraq after the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein, a newspaper reported Monday. Khazraji, who lives in exile in Denmark, "is the favoured candidate" among 62 ex-officers earmarked by Washington as potential leaders, Al-Hayat daily said, quoting Iraqi opposition sources in Damascus.

Contacts have been made with the general who enjoys "virtual unanimous support in Kurdish, Shiite and Sunnite circles", the London-based paper reported. However another exile, General Najib al-Salhi, who lives in Jordan, is also seen as a potential "Karzai" for Iraq, said the sources, referring to Hamid Karzai, the leader of the interim Afghan government installed after the United States ousted the Taliban regime.

Al-Salhi "recently went to New York for contacts with the Americans," said Al-Hayat, which is Saudi-owned. Several countries in the Middle East and the West have had consultations with exiled Iraqi officers to prepare for a possible regime change in Baghdad, it added.

The United States has threatened to extend its anti-terror war to Iraq and openly calls for Saddam Hussein's overthrow. However one of the main stumbling blocks is the weakness of Iraq's opposition, which has been silenced within the country and unable to unite into an effective force abroad