Davit Bakradze, a Saakashvili ally who is Parliament speaker, acknowledged Mr. Gachechiladze's current prominence.
The three former officials are Parliament Speaker Fathi Surour; the presidential chief of staff, Zakariya Azmi; and the head of the governing party, Safwat el-Sherif.
Despite protests from the western members, this Iramasuka faction its name comes from the first few letters of each eastern island group forced the party to nominate Mr Tandjung, who is parliament's speaker, for the vice-presidential race.
Many were from the Kurdish south-east, and were not so much against American troops coming into Turkey as Turkish ones going into northern Iraq.Bulent Arinc, a mercurial AK man who is parliament's speaker, made no secret of his delight at the government's humiliation.
Mr. Haddad Adel is expected to be elected Parliament speaker again.
Now Mr. Burg, 46, is the Parliament speaker and a presumed candidate for Labor Party leader if, as expected, Prime Minister Ehud Barak loses to Mr. Sharon in the election on Tuesday.
Ahmadinejad and Mousavi are the top contenders, but reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi who was the former Parliament Speaker, and Mohsen Rezai, a conservative former Commander of the Revolutionary Guards, have also held their own in the campaign.
Al-Marzooq is a former deputy parliament speaker who is a senior member of al-Wefaq, the main Shia political movement in the Sunni-ruled monarchy.
He said he would be replaced by parliament speaker Volodymyr Groysman and vowed to concentrate on forming a new ruling coalition that would start the disbursement of a $17.5-billion 17.5-billionfrom the Internaidonal Monetary Fund.
