Exiled Iraqi PM's wife drove off as traffic warden clung to her Audi's bonnet

And given that her husband Iyad Allawi has survived several assasination attempts and now lives in exile in London in a £2m house, she would also be advised to keep a low profile.

But Mrs Allawi, 48, has been convicted of dangerous driving after ramming her £30,000 Audi into a traffic warden who tried to give her a ticket - and speeding off with the uniformed official clinging perilously to her bonnet.

As a result she has been banned from driving for a year.

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It is a humiliating development for a woman who was only three years ago one of the most prominent women in Iraq.

Her 62-year-old husband was interim prime minister there after the fall of Saddam Hussein, from June 2004 to April 2005.

But yesterday Mrs Allawi said she was appealing against the conviction, and accused traffic warden Michelle Walker of being "a blatant liar" who "hurled herself" at the car.

She added that she was "appalled" by evidence given in court by witnesses in court saying that she had driven at Ms Walker deliberately.

A London court was told that Ms Walker was on parking enforcement duty when she saw the Audi illegally parked on the pavement of a busy shopping street near Allawi's home in July 2005.

But when she went to attach a parking ticket to the windscreen she said Mrs Allawi suddenly ran towards her shouting.

Ms Walker said: "She called me a bully. I was walking around the car to explain why she had been issued with the notice when she started to drive forward.

"I assumed she would stop but she didn't. She drove off with me on the bonnet for about 20 seconds at 10 to 15 miles per hour. I asked if she was trying to kill me."

Speaking at her London home Mrs Allawi said: "I have been very harshly treated.

"I have been labeled a dangerous driver and a liar, when in reality I nothing of the sort. It is the traffic warden who is a liar.

"I would not dream of driving at somebody, nor of driving away with them on my bonnet."

She went on: "I tried to reason with her but she would not listen. She was just after her commission.

"She would not pay any attention to what I was saying. I got in the car and drove away but as I drove off she threw herself at the windscreen.

"She was desperate to put the ticket on the windscreen and get her comission. I was in shock that she had jumped on the bonnet but when I realised what had happened I stopped.

"I cannot have travelled any distance with her on the bonnet. I would never be so irresponsible as to drive away with someone on the bonnet.

"The whole experience has been very upsetting. I am not the liar in this case."

As well as banning her from driving and adding eight penalty points to her licence, Judge Charles Tilling gave Mrs Allawi a year's driving ban, put eight points on her licence, and told her to pay compensation to Ms Walker.

Mr Allawi was appointed a senior member of the American-backed alternative government- in-waiting of Iraq in the 1990s - and as a result has long been hated by Saddam Hussein loyalists and radical islamists.

He is famously rotund, and Iraqis have nicknamed a bulky mobile phone the Allawi in joking reference to their former prime minister

Other Iraqis however are keener on calling for his murder than joking about his weight, and as a result he temporarily moved from Baghdad to Kingston-upon-Thames when he needed medical treatment for hypertension. The situation in Iraq, he said, was "alarming and dangerous".

While America has consistantly tried to play down the violence in his homeland, Mr Allawi memorably said last year: "If this is not civil war, then god known what civil war is."