Mohammad Tawfiq, a leading Kurdish official, said on Wednesday the government of Iyad Allawi appeared to have no coherent plan to improve security and that Mr Allawi was unlikely to remain in office after the January 30 elections.

“For a lot of people in Iraq, the Iraqi government exists only on television,” he said. Mr Tawfiq, a leading member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two main Kurdish parties, said Mr Allawi's government had, with US support, fed violence by reversing Washington's earlier policy of removing known Ba'athists from official positions.