Leaders of Shiites in Iraq will hold a secret ballot to choose a prime minister candidate between Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the conservative interim vice president, and Ahmad Chalabi, a secular politician who used to have close ties with Washington.

"We will announce tomorrow, God willing, the name of a candidate," said Jawad Maliki, an official from Dawa, Iraq's oldest Shiite party which is headed by Jaafari.

The clergy-backed Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, including both Jaafari and Chalabi, swept to victory in last month's general elections, taking 140 seats in the new 275-member National Assembly.

Given its majority, the alliance's choice of candidate for prime minister is expected to get the post.

However, it was somewhat hard for it to make a final choice between Chalabi and al-Jaafari.

A meeting of alliance representatives finally decided to have them vie in a secret ballot, which was also supported by Iraq's Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most influential Shiitefigure.

"Al-Sistani assured that whoever the alliance will choose, he will agree on him," said Chalabi's spokesman Haidar al-Moussawi.

The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the main group making up the alliance, once tried to convince Chalabi to back down to avoid such a ballot, its officials said. But Chalabi refused and claimed he had the support needed for the nomination.

Meanwhile, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, 59, was endorsedas the candidate for the future prime minister by his party, whichcame third in the Jan. 30 vote, winning 14 percent of the poll andsecuring 40 seats in the National Assembly.

Also on Monday, the European Union (EU) foreign ministers agreed to open an office in Baghdad and help implementing a program which will train a total of 770 Iraqis.

Under the program, the EU will start from the middle of this year to train 520 judges, investigating magistrates, police and prison officers as well as 250 investigating magistrates and senior police officers in criminal investigation.

"This is the first united EU action ... which goes beyond the monetary, the economic aid that we have offered," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told a news conference in Brussels.

He claimed the decision is "very important" just one day beforethe EU leaders would hold a summit in Brussels with their US counterpart President George W. Bush.

The EU ministers, in a conclusion after their monthly meeting, reiterated the EU's commitment to contribute to the economic, social and political reconstruction of Iraq.

The ministers expressed their willingness to set up with the Iraqi transitional government a political dialogue on areas of mutual interest.

Foreign ministers of the bloc also called on Monday for the immediate release of a French journalist and her Italian counterpart missing or held in Iraq.

French journalist Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi guide Hussein Hanun al-Saadi have been missing since Jan. 5, while Italian reporter Giuliana Sgrena was abducted on Feb. 4 in central Baghdad.

In another development, the Indonesian government said Monday two TV journalists held hostage by a militia group in Iraq had been released, and are on their way out of Iraq.

Reports said they had arrived at the Iraqi side of the border with Jordan, but was unable to enter Jordan because the Iraqi border is officially closed until Tuesday.

The two journalists, both working for Jakarta-based Metro TV, were held captive in Iraq on Feb. 15.