Ayad Allawi

BAGHDAD — Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Saturday his secular political alliance is open to bringing any of his rivals into a governing coalition that can restore Iraq's place in the Arab and Muslim world after years of war.

Allawi's Iraqiya bloc came out the top vote-getter in March 7 parliamentary elections, edging out his chief rival, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who vowed to challenge the results. With a razor-thin margin over al-Maliki's coalition, Allawi's road to regaining the premiership is anything but guaranteed, and a lengthy period of political negotiations — possibly punctuated with violence — likely lies ahead.

"The Iraqi people have blessed the Iraqiya bloc by choosing it," Allawi told a packed news conference Saturday at his headquarters. "We are open to all powers starting with the State of Law bloc of brother Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki."

Allawi's Iraqiya coalition won 91 seats to 89 for al-Maliki's State of Law bloc, riding a wave of support from Sunnis frustrated with the current government, which they say has incited sectarian tensions and is too closely aligned with neighboring Iran.

Allawi, a Shiite who has called for a greater voice for the Sunni minority that dominated Iraq before the fall of Saddam Hussein, has appealed for a broad coalition centered on national identity rather than religious sect.

The full election results, announced Friday, suggest millions of Iraqis are fed up with a political system that revolves around membership in one of the two major Islamic sects.

Sunni neighborhoods across Baghdad erupted into dancing in the streets after the results were announced. But with the Sunni minority making up only about 15 percent to 20 percent of Iraq, Allawi's victory would not have been possible without at least some support from the country's Shiite majority, and he got it.