German judges gave 10 years jail Tuesday to the chief plotter in a failed attempt to assassinate a prime minister of post-Saddam Iraq during a visit to Berlin four years ago.

Ata R, aged 34, was convicted of membership in a foreign terrorist organization, the radical Iraqi Muslim organization Ansar al-Islam.

His fellow plotters, Rafik Y, aged 33, and Mazen H, aged 27, received eight years and seven and a half years in jail on a similar charge. The court in Stuttgart, Germany found that they had plotted to kill the Iraqi premier of the time, Iyad Allawi.

Police had been observing the group and arrested them. Allawi visited Berlin in December 2004 without incident to gain a pledge of aid for his country, which was in turmoil after the United States had ousted dictator Saddam Hussein. Not long after, he lost power.

The court said the trio also raised funds or recruited for Ansar al-Islam.

Ansar al-Islam was reportedly founded in 2001 in northern Iraq to oppose both the secular Kurdish authorities and US occupation.

Western intelligence agencies estimate it has 1,000 members, many in fractious subgroups, with 100 members in Germany, and say that it has a loose relationship with al-Qaeda, harbouring al-Qaeda operatives in exchange for training at al-Qaeda camps.

The chief judge said the trial, which began in June 2006, had shown that R had been an 'important and leading member' of the group. The trial was told he was known as the 'emir of Germany' among the group, emir being an Arabic title for a leader.

'He was in regular, close contact with the most senior cadres of the organization,' she added.

H had been 'a close associate' of R, and had been intended as R's successor if R had been captured and H had remained free.

Under German news reporting guidelines, full surnames are commonly withheld in the German media.