Safiya Al Suhail, Iraqi Ambassador to Cairo, has said she was serious and insistent on her idea of a nomination for presidency.

"I am serious and insistent on the idea and this is not an impulse," Suhail was quoted by Iraqi newspaper Azzaman as saying on Thursday.

She said she would seek support from Iraqi people and not from any foreign power.

Suhail was invited to attend the State of the Union address by US President George W. Bush last month, a move raising speculation that she was wooing US backing.

"It was not to gain support of the American administration but was in response to an official invitation from the American president and his wife Laura," she said.

Suhail, a prominent Shiite politician, is the wife of IraqiMinister of Human Rights Bukhtyar Amin, a Sunni Kurd. While the first meeting of the elected national assembly is being delayed, Kurdish heavyweight Jalal Talabani is widely expected to take the post of president.

The Talabani-led Kurdish list won 75 seats in the 275-seatnational assembly, granting the Kurds a big say in forming the coming transitional government.