REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BAGHDAD -- Iraqi President Fuad Masum on Monday tasked deputy parliamentary speaker Haidar al-Abadi with forming a government during a brief ceremony broadcast on state television.

"The country is now in your hands," Masum told Abadi, who moments earlier was selected as nominee for prime minister instead of incumbent Nuri al-Maliki by the Shiite National Alliance parliamentary bloc.

Abadi, a member of Maliki's Dawa party who is viewed as close to the two-term premier, was communications minister in the interim government following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, after spending much of the dictator's rule in exile.

He was elected to parliament in 2006, chaired the finance committee and became deputy parliament speaker earlier this year.

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