HAIDER AL-ABADI’S name was not even among those on the list of candidates for prime minister the week before he was nominated for the post on August 11th. But once the 62-year-old was mentioned in a meeting without the presence of Nuri al-Maliki, the then incumbent, Iraq’s fractious political groups rapidly agreed to back him. Mr Abadi has a month in which to find a government to present to parliament for approval.

Mr Abadi hails from Mr Maliki’s Dawa party, which is part of the State of Law parliamentary bloc that won the largest number of seats in a general election in May. He is acceptable to most Shias. But, since he spent almost 30 years in exile in Britain until his return to Iraq in 2003, he is widely seen as closer to the West than he is to Iran, the biggest patron of Iraq’s Shia-dominated government. This has gone some way towards reassuring Iraq’s Kurds and Sunnis, not to mention the Americans.

The Baghdad-born father of three is by most accounts cleverer, more modest and more tolerant than Mr Maliki. He excelled academically, being immediately appointed a lecturer on graduating in engineering from Iraq’s University of Technology and registering a patent in London in 2001. Unlike Mr Maliki, he speaks fluent English, having earned a doctorate at Manchester University; he worked for British companies during his long period in exile.

In a clutch of leaked cables by American diplomats he was described among other things as an economic reformer, more likely to tackle corruption than to indulge in it. He appears less prone to harbour the sort of personal animosities that preoccupied Mr Maliki. He is said to have so far attended only two meetings to form a new government, leaving the gruelling negotiations to a team from the National Alliance, an umbrella for the main Shia groups in parliament.

Yet it is uncertain whether Mr Abadi, who has long been a confidant of Mr Maliki, will be able to break free of the same sectarian constraints. Joining Dawa as a teenager, he was appointed to the executive leadership in his 20s. As a result Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime forced his father, a doctor from a well-known family, to retire and thereafter arrested Mr Abadi’s three brothers; two were executed.

Thus it would be astonishing if he were to heed calls by some Sunnis to bring former Baath party members into government to show his determination to create a non-sectarian government. Yet it is vital that he woos moderate Sunnis. Otherwise he is likely to get caught in the same sectarian trap as Mr Maliki.