Baghdad, Iraq ? A French-educated finance minister and a former London physician emerged Monday as the top candidates to be Iraq’s next prime minister after the clergy-backed Shiite Muslim alliance failed to get the necessary majority of votes to control the legislature.

The prominence of urbane, moderate, Western-oriented figures appeared designed to counter concern in Washington that Iran’s influence will grow in Iraq after a Shiite-dominated government takes power — even though the ultimate decision may rest with a reclusive elderly cleric.

Meanwhile, violence continued, with roadside bombs on Monday killing a U.S. soldier and three Iraqi National Guard troops. Officials also said insurgents blew up an oil pipeline near Kirkuk and killed two senior police officers in Baghdad.

Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the interim finance minister, and Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the interim vice president, were said to be the leading candidates for prime minister as backroom trading for the top posts in the new government began in earnest Monday.

The consultations were necessary because the United Iraqi Alliance failed to secure the two-thirds majority in the newly elected assembly that would have allowed it to control the legislature and install whomever it wanted as president.

The Kurds, who are poised to become kingmakers in the new Iraq, have already said they want Jalal Talabani, a secular Sunni Kurd and leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, to be Iraq’s next president, a largely ceremonial post. The Shiites may seek a deal with the Kurds to back Talabani for president in return for Kurdish support for their prime ministerial choice.

The National Assembly’s first task is to elect a president and two vice presidents by a two-thirds majority. The three then choose a new prime minister subject to assembly approval.

The parties that make up the alliance — the Islamic Dawa Party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and former Pentagon protege Ahmad Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress — huddled for talks to decide on a prime ministerial candidate.

Al-Jaafari was the Dawa Party’s choice, while SCIRI nominated Abdul-Mahdi, said Humam Hamoudi, a spokesman for the United Iraqi Alliance. He said the alliance would decide on Tuesday.

But it may ultimately be Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani who decides. Al-Sistani’s tacit endorsement is believed to have led to the Alliance’s electoral victory. An official in al-Sistani’s office said representatives from the alliance would visit the elderly cleric on Tuesday but that he has not endorsed anyone.