Sitting in a plush chair in his enormous villa's living room and flanked on his left by an Iraqi flag, the 54-year-old concedes now is not the time for wholesale political changes.

"I remain convinced that the return of the monarchy may be the remedy to Iraq's ills, that has always been my ambition, but the context does not allow for this," Sharif Ali told AFP.

"There have been two years of sectarian conflict, of a lack of security, and the social situation has worsened.

"My concern was to help fix these problems, and that is why we have decided the moment is not right to discuss a return of the monarchy, even if the idea enjoys support.

"Until better days come, we will participate in the political process" by joining forces with a Shiite-led bloc to contest Iraq's March 7 parliamentary election, said the former banker.

Sharif Ali is the son of Badiaa, a first cousin on the mother's side of King Ghazi, the Sunni Hashemite ruler of Iraq from 1933-1939.

His villa in the up-scale residential neighbourhood of Jadriyah on the banks of the Tigris is adorned with photographs of Iraq's Hashemite kings, who ruled from 1921 to 1958, when the monarchy was overthrown by a military coup.

He left Iraq at the time, aged two, and grew up in Britain, only to return in June 2003 as leader of the Constitutional Monarchy Party when he proclaimed "the majority of the Iraqi people demand the return of the monarchy."

The would-be king's Shiite wife and four children remain at his exiled home in London.

His Baghdad home is guarded by an Iraqi army unit and a poster hangs near the entrance bearing Sharif Ali's smiling face and the slogan: "Give your vote to those who deserve it."

His claim to the throne is not unchallenged, though: 74-year-old Raad bin Zaid, a first cousin of King Ghazi, lives in Jordan and has not returned to Iraq.

"Since 1991, a consensus has emerged in the royal family that I be designated the next-in-line to the throne," Sharif Ali insisted.

Since returning, however, he has had trouble garnering support in repeated bids to enter politics.

The Americans refused to integrate his movement into the Iraqi governing council, which was formed after the US-led invasion to oust late dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, and the Constitutional Monarchy Party failed to win any seats in Iraq's first parliamentary elections in 2005.

Now, though, he is better placed.

His party has allied itself with the Shiite-dominated Iraqi National Alliance, which is led by two overtly religious factions, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council and the movement loyal to the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

"Working with the INA was debatable but in my view, it was the right choice," Sharif Ali said.

"It's wrong to say that the INA is a religious coalition. It includes liberals and people with different sensibilities. For me, the alliance is based around a political programme: strengthening the institutions of the state and an end to sectarianism."

"The Sunni lists that we discussed working with offered alliances that would expire after the elections, and with the State of Law coalition, I got the feeling that their only objective was to ensure (Prime Minister) Nuri al-Maliki kept his post."

Sharif Ali is listed as number 11 on the INA's list of candidates for the Baghdad governorate.

His favourable ranking gives him a good chance of obtaining a seat in parliament, given Iraq's proportional voting system and the 70 seats available in Baghdad.

The realities of Iraq have hampered any effort at campaigning for most would-be MPs, however -- violence in the country remains high, despite having fallen markedly from its peak from 2005 to 2007, and candidates fear political assassinations.

Sharif Ali is no different. While he has some posters scattered across the capital and conducts interviews with television news stations in his home, he is not organising public rallies or distributing flyers on the street.

"We are directly communicating with our supporters from the house," he said.

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