"What you are watching now are the big lists," political science professor Wamid Nadhmi told AFP at the beginning of the week.

"I think in every single town there are small lists that to a certain extent represent this tendency of non-sectarian politics."

He singled out one in particular, known as the Democratic Justice and Reform Party, and added: "People are trying to find some secular lists, they would like to vote for them because it corrresponds more to their ideas about political life in Iraq."

However, major alliances by established Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish are still expected to win the most seats in the 275-member parliament when general elections are held December 15 in the final phase of the country's yearlong transition to democracy.

The electoral commission said that 228 lists had been registered, including 21 coalitions, but it did not immediately specify the number of candidates.

The new legislature is to replace a transitional parliament elected in January and serve for four years, its first full term since Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled in April 2003.

Among the major groups, Nadhmi said: "He who represents this secular trend is Mr Allawi, he spoke very much against the sectarian tendencies as a threat to the unity of the country."

Former prime minister Iyad Allawi, who heads the Iraqi National List and has backing from Washington, has warned that "growing ethnic polarisation risks causing endless conflict in Iraq which could also split along sectarian lines."

Nadhmi nonetheless also noted: "When it comes to Mr Allawi himself, people won't forget he was an ardent supporter of the occupation and that his period witnessed the massacres in Fallujah, Kuffa, Najaf and Samarra."

Two are Sunni towns and two are dominated by Shiites and all were the sites of fierce fighting with US-led forces.

"I think some people would like to vote for him but they have serious reservations about his short political past," the Baghdad University professor said.

All the same, "I find a lot of the Sunnis are not going to vote for the Islamists because they are considered too Sunni, it is considered a counter-reaction to Shiite domination but it is of the same nature."

Agence France-Presse