Ebrahim Al Jaafari who is expected to be named new prime minister in the next few days has appealed to Tony Blair not to pull out British troops.

Al Jaafari, who would be the first Shiite to be in charge of the Iraqi government, confounded his critics by saying that his country could not maintain order without the help of foreign soldiers.

"Iraq's security services need more personnel, training and equipment," he said on Sunday.

"We need their presence for a certain time till we can depend on ourselves 100 per cent," he told The Daily Telegraph in an interview.

"There are many people still working for Saddam Hussain, terrorists from outside, and there is still the 'mafia'. Blood is spilled. How would it be if the troops left?"

Al Jaafari said British troops were a stabilising force in the south.

"Everyone knows the security situation needs them," he said. "They can support us. Only when we can fill the vacuum do they not need to stay more. But in order to reach that last stage we need to work very hard."

He credited Blair for his "bravery" in removing Saddam. "He is a very good man who has supported us through difficult times right from the beginning," he said of the British Prime Minister.

Al Jaafari, 58, the present interim vice-president, has emerged as the frontrunner to be premier after weeks of negotiations within the United Iraqi Alliance.

The physician, who lived in London for the past 20 years, heads the Dawa Party, the oldest Islamic political party in Iraq with close ties to Iran.

It was founded with the goal of turning Iraq into a religious state based on Islamic law. But yesterday he said that if elected premier he would be guided by pragmatism, not ideology.

"Not all Iraqis are Muslim, not all Muslims are Shiite and not all Shiites are Islamic," he said. "You have to take into consideration the characteristics of a country and we are very different from Iran."

He insists his "Sunni brothers" - including former members of the Baath party - would be included in bodies drafting the new constitution as long as they had not been involved in violence.

Though Islam would be the official religion of the state it would not be the only source of the constitution, he said.