Chalabi Out? 
Iraq's oil minister has returned to work, a week after resigning in protest against fuel price hikes, aided by support from the president and the most powerful Shi'ite political leader.Ibrahim Bahr Al Uloum's return for a probable four-year term appears part of intense partisan wrangling over the formation of a full-term government following the December 15 election to replace the interim administration.
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He was replaced by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi.
But Uloum has since met other senior leaders including President Jalal Talabani, whose Kurdish bloc is a key element in the ruling coalition, and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of SCIRI, which, with Jaafari's rival Dawa party, forms the backbone of the Shi'ite Islamist Alliance bloc.
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A second oil industry source said Uloum, an Islamist, had a better chance of staying on in the new government than Chalabi, another Shi'ite but a secularist, and once a favourite of Washington.
Tantrums 'r us. Helluva way to run a government.
KEYWORDS: Iraq, politics, oil
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