WASHINGTON, Feb 14: The outcome of Iraq's election is not what the United States envisioned, but the divided national assembly it created is unlikely to make major changes, such as creating an Islamic state, US papers said on Monday.

The result of the vote - a government with a strong religious base and close ties to Iran - is far from what the United States expected from its costly investment in Iraq, analysts told The Washington Post.

"This is a government that will have very good relations with Iran," Juan Cole, a University of Michigan expert on Iraq, told the paper. "In terms of regional geopolitics, this is not the outcome that the United States was hoping for."

Iran and Iraq are now likely to take similar positions on many issues - at a time when the United States is ratcheting up tensions with Tehran over alleged nuclear weapons ambitions.

Furthermore, secular democrats close to Washington, such as Sunni politician Adnan Pachachi and outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, lost big, the Post pointed out.

Mr Pachachi's party won no seats in the national assembly, and Mr Allawi, who was handpicked by the United States to head the interim government, did not emerge with enough backing to continue his leadership position.

"The idea that the United States would get a quick, stable, prosperous, pro-American and pro-Israel Iraq has not happened. Most of the neo-conservative assumptions about what would happen have proven false," Rami Khouri, Arab analyst and editor of Beirut's Daily Star, told the Post.

The New York Times presented the outcome in a very different light, saying the Shias' "razor-thin margin... seems almost certain to enshrine a weak government that will be unable to push through sweeping changes" such as granting Islam a central role in government. -AFP