BAGHDAD: In three weeks in office, Iraq's Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has made a series of carefully calibrated decisions that may succeed in drawing enemies in from the cold while uniting more Iraqis under the national banner.

While regarded by some as an American puppet, Allawi's tough talk backed by threats appears to have pleased many Iraqis looking for a hardliner, while offers of conciliation to some enemies have made him appear an almost avuncular, uniting force.

The former exile's latest move was to lift a ban on al-Hawza newspaper, a mouthpiece for rebel Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr which was shut down in March by former US governor Paul Bremer, who said it had incited violence against Americans.

The closing of its presses sparked a backlash by Sadr's followers, contributing to a violent two-month uprising across Shia southern Iraq that in some areas is still simmering.

Allawi's decision to lift the ban appeared a well-chosen olive branch that could draw Sadr and some of his estimated 10,000 followers back into the mainstream. "Allawi is a clever person and restoring al-Hawza's right to print was a well-calculated move," said Wamidh Nadhmi, a professor of political science at Baghdad University.

"I think he's over-exaggerating his tough-guy act." Allawi last week unveiled a new committee to study ways of improving basic services in Sadr City, the poor Baghdad neighbourhood from where Sadr draws much of his support.

It is a high-stakes game, however, and Allawi has to be cautious not to go too far, or appear too placatory. "It's a nuanced approach that shows Allawi to be very politically astute," said Christopher Langton, a Middle East analyst at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

In the same way, Langton says Allawi has been wise in appealing to Sadr's sense of nationalism, which might prevent him gravitating towards Iran and its powerful Shia clerics.

But it is not just Sadr and disaffected Shias that Allawi appears to be reaching out to. A plan expected to be announced shortly would offer an amnesty to insurgents who put down their weapons and start to support the interim government. -Reuters