BAGHDAD, Iraq – A French-educated finance minister and a former London physician emerged yesterday as the top candidates to be Iraq’s next prime minister, as leaders of the clergy backed Shiite Muslim alliance launched consultations after failing to get a two-thirds majority in the vote for Iraq’s new Parliament.

The prominence of urbane, moderate, Western-oriented figures appears designed to counter concern in Washington that Iran’s influence will grow in Iraq after a Shiite-dominated government takes power – even though the ultimate decision may rest with a reclusive elderly cleric.

Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the interim finance minister, and Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the interim vice president, were said to be the leading candidates for prime minister.

The Kurds, who are poised to become kingmakers in the new Iraq, have already said they want Jalal Talabani, a secular Sunni Kurd and leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, to be Iraq’s next president. The Shiites may seek a deal with the Kurds to back Mr. Talabani for president in return for Kurdish support for their prime ministerial choice.

The Kurds, who comprise about 15% of Iraq’s population, have demanded the new constitution legalize Kurdish self-rule in the north. They also want an end to what they call “Arabization” of Kirkuk and other northern areas where most of the Arabs are Sunni Muslims.

But the Shiites also know they must move carefully, particularly if they want to extend a hand to the minority Sunni Arabs to form an inclusive government and tame a virulent insurgency. Many Sunni Arabs, who make up about 20% of the population, stayed home on election day, either out of fear of violence, or to support a boycott call by radical clerics opposed to the American military.

Roadside bombs yesterday killed an American soldier and three Iraqi National Guard troops, and officials said insurgents blew up an oil pipeline near Kirkuk and killed two senior police officers in Baghdad.

Three other American soldiers were wounded when the bomb detonated near their patrol outside the town of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, the military said.

At least 1,461 members of the American military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The January 30 election results for the National Assembly, announced Sunday, gave the clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance 48% of the vote, the Kurdish alliance 26%, and the ticket led by Prime Minister Allawi, a secular Shiite who supported strong ties to Washington, only 14%.

Backroom trading for the top posts in the new government began in earnest yesterday after the United Iraqi Alliance failed to secure the two-thirds majority in the newly elected assembly that would have allowed it to control the legislature and install whomever it wanted as president.

The National Assembly’s first task is to elect a president and two vice presidents by a two-thirds majority. The three then choose a new prime minister subject to assembly approval.

The parties that make up the alliance – the Islamic Dawa Party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and former Pentagon protege Ahmad Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress – huddled for talks to decide on a candidate for prime minister.

Mr. al-Jaafari was the Dawa Party’s choice, while Sciri nominated Mr. Abdul-Mahdi, said a spokesman for the United Iraqi Alliance, Humam Hamoudi. He said the alliance would decide today.

But it may ultimately be Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani who decides. Ayatollah al-Sistani’s tacit endorsement is believed to have led to the Alliance’s electoral victory. An official in Ayatollah al-Sistani’s office said representatives from the alliance would visit the elderly cleric today but that he has not endorsed anyone.

Among other leading Shiites, Mr. Chalabi has also thrown his name into the contest for prime minister. A turbaned cleric who led the ticket and has close links with Iran, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, has said he’s not interested in the job. The French-educated Mr. Abdul-Mahdi, who was born in 1942 and is the son of a respected Shiite cleric, was a leading SCIRI politician before becoming the interim finance minister.

Mr. al-Jaafari, a physician, was born in 1947 and lived in London before serving on the now-disbanded Iraqi Governing Council.

Mr. Allawi, the secular Shiite who ran the government for the last eight months, had been discussed as a compromise candidate, but his chances dimmed after his ticket finished a distant third with only 13% of the vote. American officials, speaking privately, have suggested he might get a vice presidential position with responsibility for security. Alliance spokesman Mr. Hamoudi said the prime ministerial, candidate would be chosen on his ability to unite the splintering population.