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Top cabinet members

Brief biographies of the top five ministers in the new interim Iraqi Cabinet:

SAADOUN AL-DULEIMI, SUNNI, DEFENSE MINISTER: From a powerful tribe in Iraq's restive Anbar province, heartland of the insurgency. A lieutenant colonel in Saddam Hussein's General Security Directorate. Left Iraq in 1984 and lived in exile in Saudi Arabia until returning after Hussein's fall in April 2003.

BAYAN JABR, 55, SHIITE, INTERIOR MINISTER: Studied engineering at Baghdad University in the 1970s. Fled to Iran during a crackdown on Shiites and joined the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Served as minister of housing and reconstruction in the first U.S.-picked provisional Cabinet.

IBRAHIM BAHR AL-ULOUM, 51, SHIITE, OIL MINISTER: Was also oil minister in the first U.S.-picked provisional Cabinet and escaped an assassination attempt during that time. Holds a doctorate in petroleum engineering from the University of New Mexico and worked as an engineer for the Kuwaiti Oil Ministry for five years.

HOSHYAR ZEBARI, 55, KURD, FOREIGN MINISTER: Has held the post in each interim body since the first U.S.-picked provisional Cabinet. Belongs to a powerful tribe in northwestern Iraq and is an uncle of Massoud Barzani, one of two leaders who control the Kurdish areas. Was a spokesman for Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party and active in opposition contacts with the United States before the war.

ALI ABDEL-AMIR ALLAWI, SHIITE, FINANCE MINISTER: Wealthy businessman with degrees from Harvard and MIT. Previously a consultant to the World Bank and head of a London investment company, Pan-Arab. A nephew of former Pentagon favorite and deputy prime minister Ahmad Chalabi and a cousin of former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

[Last modified May 9, 2005, 01:54:14]