The first act of the council was to abolish Baathist anniversaries and declare 9 April, the day the former regime fell, a national holiday. The composition of the council broadly reflects the ethnic and religious make-up of Iraq and is notable for the range of technical expertise it represents.

1. Samir Mahmoud

A Sunni and member of the Al-Sumaidy clan. A writer and entrepreneur from the western city of Haditha, he was a prominent opponent of the former regime.

2. Ahmad Chalabi

The founder, in 1992, of the London-based Iraqi National Congress (INC), which has the backing of the Pentagon. A controversial figure in Iraq due to his ties to the US administration and his exile from the country for more than 45 years. Chalabi was convicted in absentia of fraud in a banking scandal in Jordan in 1989 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

3. Nasir Kamel al-Chaderchi

A Sunni and leader of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Al-Chaderchi works in Baghdad as a lawyer, businessman and landowner. His father, Kamel al-Chaderchi, played a prominent role in democratic reform before the Baath party came to power in 1968.

4. Adnan Pachachi

Pachachi served as foreign minister from 1965-67 in the government deposed by the Baath party. The 80-year-old liberal-leaning nationalist founded the Independent Democratic Movement in February to provide a platform for Iraqis to back a secular, democratic government. He returned to Iraq from the UAE in May after 32 years in exile.

5. Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum

A widely respected Shia scholar who fled Iraq after the murder of several family members in 1991, Al-Uloum has since been living in London, where he founded the Ahl al-Bayt charitable centre.

6. Massoud Barzani

A Sunni Kurd and leader since 1979 of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), founded in 1946 by his father, the guerrilla leader Mustafa Barzani. In 1983 three of his brothers were killed during a crackdown by the Baghdad regime. Relations between Barzani and Jalal Talabani, leader of the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), have improved recently. The two parties fought a civil war in the 1990s.

7. Jalal Talabani

A Sunni Kurd and head of the PUK, which he founded in 1957 after breaking with the KDP, where he had served in the politburo after joining the party at the age of 15.

8. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim

Number two in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri), and brother of the leader of the council Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim. The Iran-based Shia group opposes a US administration in Iraq but has close ties with other US-backed opposition groups, including the PUK, KDP and INC.

9. Ibrahim al-Jaafari

Chief spokesman for the Daawa Islamic Party, one of the oldest Shia Islamist movements, which moved to Iran after being outlawed by the Baghdad regime in the 1980s. Daawa claims to have lost more than 77,000 members in its war against Saddam Hussein before being crushed in 1982. Born in Kerbala, Al-Jaafari studied medicine at Mosul University.

10. Sondul Chapouk

The sole Turkman representative in the council and leader of the Iraqi Women's Organisation. Born in Kirkuk, she is trained as an engineer and teacher.

11. Aqila al-Hashemi

A Shia diplomat, Al-Hashemi led the Iraqi delegation to the recent donors' conference in New York and served in the diplomatic service under the former regime. She holds a doctorate in modern European literature and a bachelor's degree in law.

12. Younadam Yusef Kana

Trained as an engineer, Kana worked as a transport official in the first Kurdish regional assembly before serving as industry and energy minister in the regional government established in Irbil. An Assyrian Christian and secretary-general of the Democratic Assyrian Movement, Kana is an active member of the Chaldean Christian community.

13. Salaheddin Bahaedden

A member of the Kurdish Sunni community, Bahaeddin founded the Kurdistan Islamic Union in 1991 and was elected its secretary-general three years later. He was born in Halabja.

14. Mahmoud Osman

Osman held several posts in the KDP in the 1960s before moving to London, where he founded the Kurdish Socialist Party.

15. Hamid Majid Moussa

A Shia secretary of the Iraqi Communist Party since 1993, Trained as an economist and oil researcher, he left Iraq in 1978 before returning to the north in 1983 to resume opposition activities against the former regime.

16. Ghazi al-Yawar

A civil engineer who spent 15 years working in Saudi Arabia, becoming vice-president of the Hicap Technology Company. Al-Yawar is a Sunni who was born in Mosul, and is a close relative of Sheikh Mohsen Adel al-Yawar, head of the powerful Shamar tribe, which comprises both Sunnis and Shias.

17. Mohsen Abdel-Hamid

A prolific commentator on the Quran, Abdel-Hamid is secretary-general of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was born in Kirkuk and was briefly imprisoned by the former regime in 1996.

18. Rajiha Habib al-Kurzai

Head of the maternity hospital in the southern city of Diwaniyah. She studied and lived in the UK in the 1960s and 1970s before returning to Iraq in 1977.

19. Iyad Alawi

Secretary-general of the Iraqi National Accord (INA), which he founded in 1990. The INA became an umbrella group for military and security defectors from the former regime and supported the idea of a US-supported coup from within the Iraqi army.

20. Wael Abdel-Latif

A Shia lawyer and judge, and currently deputy head of the Basra court. He was named governor of Basra by local authorities on 4 July.

21. Muwafaq al-Rabiya

A British-educated neurologist and human rights activist, he has published studies of the Iraqi Shia. A member of the British Royal Doctors' Practice.

22. Dara Noureddin

A Sunni Kurd who served as a judge on the Court of Appeal. He was imprisoned for eight years in the notorious Abu Gharib jail to the west of Baghdad after ruling that one of the former regime's edicts - confiscating land without compensation - was unconstitutional. He was released under a general amnesty in October last year.

23. Abdul Karim Mahoud al-Mohammedawi (Abu Hatem)

Known as the 'lord of the marshes' for leading the guerrilla war against Saddam Hussein in the southern marshes for 17 years. He was captured by the regime and imprisoned for six years. Leader of the Iraqi political group Hezbollah in the southern city of Amarah.

24. Ezzedine Salim

Head of the Daawa Islamic Party, based in Basra.

25. Ahmed al-Barak

Head of the Iraqi Bar Association and general co-ordinator for the Human Rights Association in the central city of Babylon. As part of the Foreign Ministry he has worked with UN programmes in Iraq since 1991.