BAGHDAD, Iraq - As elections officials certified his Shiite Muslim coalition's majority in Iraq's new National Assembly on Thursday, the leading candidate for prime minister said he was preparing plans to ''purify the state's institutions'' of former Saddam Hussein loyalists who committed crimes.
Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who is Iraq's interim vice president, said he proposed to tighten rules on dealing with former members of Hussein's Baath Party - one of the most divisive issues the new government will face.
In an interview, Al-Jaafari said he was committed to ridding the government of anyone who profited as a Baath official or carried out the oppressive policies of a party that he said ''committed crimes against the Iraqis more than what Hitler or Mussolini did.''
Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has urged restraint in purging former Baathists, warning of potential unrest. Al-Jaafari, acknowledging that many Iraqis were compelled to join the party to hold government jobs, said the policy would forgive ''the majority of Baathists who did not commit crimes'' and allow them to resume work in the army or civil service.
The National Assembly is required to write a constitution for Iraq, submit it to a referendum in October and set up elections for a constitutional government in December.
Carlos Valenzuela, the U.N. elections expert on the elections commission, said last month's vote, while imperfect was ''an extremely good election.''
The parties with the most seats have been bargaining for days to allocate top government and Cabinet posts. Al-Jaafari said the Kurdish parties had sought to open the issue of restoring Kirkuk - an oil-rich northern city divided among Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen - to Kurdish control but that his coalition has not agreed to consider the issue.
He said the Shiites had ''no problem'' with the Kurds' demand to install one of the leaders, Jalal Talabani, as president and that he hoped Sunnis invited into the government would take the job of assembly speaker.
Al-Jaafari insisted the new government would be inclusive of all ethnic parties, including Sunnis. He said his party, Dawa, has tempered its desire for an Islamic government to accommodate secular and non-Muslim Iraqis.