* Hadi seen struggling to win military's allegiance
* Challenges include secessionists, rebels, al Qaeda
* Described as weak yet consensus-making figure
By Mahmoud Habboush and Tom Finn
DUBAI/SANAA, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi is being thrust into the spotlight as Yemen's next president, yet little is known about a man who has languished in the shadow of the Arabian Peninsula's iron ruler of the past 30 years.
A former army general, Hadi is the only candidate standing to replace Ali Abdullah Saleh, guaranteeing that he'll take the helm of a chaotic nation facing multiple challenges: a collapsing economy, a growing threat from al Qaeda, rising secessionist sentiment in the south, and Houthi Shi'ite Muslim rebels in the north.
"I am going to lead one of the most difficult and complicated stages that Yemen has ever faced," he conceded in a speech earlier this month. "The roads are blocked, the oil pipelines are shut down, the living conditions are hard, business activity and factories are stalled."
Despite hailing from the southern province of Abyan, Hadi stuck by Saleh during the 1994 civil war between North and South Yemen - formerly a separate, socialist republic before union with Saleh's north in 1990.
Described by a former classmate as a technocrat who shuns tribalism, Hadi was forced to flee the south in 1986 along with a number of military battalions after a group of military generals staged a coup there.
He is now tasked with steering a united Yemen through a dicey transitional period that will require him to introduce a new constitution and hold multi-party elections within two years. His task will be made easier, however, by the fact that he has the support of Saleh's sons and nephews, who continue to control an array of military and security units, as well as the consent of rival generals and the opposition.
But the father of five will have to move away from Saleh's legacy without alienating the outgoing president's supporters, especially in the armed forces.
"Saleh's shadow over the political system is heavy," Abdul Ghani al-Iryani, a Sanaa-based political analyst, said. "What gives Hadi leverage is that he is not Saleh," he added.
Yahya Abu Ausba, assistant secretary general of the Yemen Socialist Party, said Hadi would have to act decisively to win the hearts and minds of the Yemeni people.
"If Hadi wants to be remembered in history, he has to transit the Yemeni people into change by serving the goals of the revolution and face up to the powerful (men)," he said, referring to Saleh's relatives and confidants who hold key positions in the power structure.
CONTROVERSIAL DECISIONS
Saleh's No. 2 man for 20 years, Hadi has already shown he is ready to take controversial decisions.
His relationship with Saleh soured in January after he refused the president's orders to reinstate Saleh's own allies who had lost their jobs in the power handover.
But it remains unclear what Hadi will do with dozens of powerful relatives of the outgoing president. Saleh himself is currently in the United States receiving medical treatment for injuries he sustained during an assassination attempt in June, giving Hadi a little more room to manoeuvre.
But he has a difficult balancing act.
On the one hand, he will have to effect a smooth transition that includes constitutional reforms and allows him to restructure the armed forces without creating more enemies.
Yet on the other, he will have to address demands by young protesters and elements within the military itself to sack some of Saleh's closest relatives.
Their dominance is entrenched.
Yemenis recall that while Western officials courted Hadi as acting head of state, Saleh's son Ahmed, commander of the elite Presidential Guards, took up residence in the presidential palace, forcing Hadi himself to work from his Defence Ministry office.
Forced to operate in Saleh's shadow, Hadi has never been a strong or independent player on the Yemeni political scene. Some politicians still refer to him as a member of Saleh's own clique.
A government official from the Islamic Islah party, among the best organised of Saleh's opponents, described Hadi as "smart and well connected but politically weak."
The last time he was acting head of state was in June when Saleh was recuperating in a Saudi hospital after an explosion ripped through his presidential mosque in an assassination attempt.
MILITARY BACKGROUND
Like many senior politicians in Yemen's ruling party, Hadi rose to prominence through the military. He was sent to Britain in 1966 to study military tactics when Aden was still a Crown colony and was later appointed minister of defence.
He also studied military sciences in Egypt and the Soviet Union where he wrote a thesis on defence strategies in mountainous regions.
"He didn't like partying like other young men when he was in Britain," retired general Ali Awadh Waqes, who studied with Hadi in Britain, told Reuters in Aden. "He spent most of his leisure time walking in the streets, going to the cinema or reading."
His reading list included autobiographies of military commanders. "He didn't seem ambitious, he was an ordinary guy but a very hard working one," Waqes said.
Described by some analysts as a political survivor, Hadi is likely to confine his approach to implementing the agreed reform plan.
His rare public appearances mean he is little known to the Yemeni people, however, an obstacle he will have to overcome if he is to succeed.
His relative obscurity was reflected in a profile of him published on Feb. 13 in the Yemeni daily Al Adwa, which described him as "poker-faced", and based an analysis of his personality on the generic traits of the Taurus horoscope sign, which the paper claimed he belongs to.
"He gives an impression of being cool-headed but can explode unexpectedly," the paper said. "Don't test his patience!" (Writing by Mahmoud Habboush; additional reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf in Aden; Editing by Sami Aboudi and Andrew Osborn)
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