BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 1 - In his first public appearance since an Iraqi judge ordered his arrest three weeks ago, the Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi announced his return to Iraq's political scene on Wednesday, saying that criminal charges against him had been dropped.

But later on Wednesday, the judge, Zuhair al-Maliky, said in an interview that the case had not been completely closed and that Mr. Chalabi might still need to appear for questioning.

Speaking at a news conference at his former headquarters here, Mr. Chalabi claimed a victory in what had been a struggle with the new Iraqi government, which has in recent weeks ordered two raids on two of Mr. Chalabi's main offices.

Mr. Chalabi has contended that a warrant issued for his arrest in early August was political, brought at the behest of American officials. It was now reduced to a summons, he said. He also said the judge had dismissed the counterfeiting charges against him.

In the interview, Mr. Maliky was less conclusive, however, saying that Mr. Chalabi had yet to be cleared.

In a separate case, Mr. Chalabi's nephew, Salem Chalabi, charged with involvement in the killing of an Iraqi official, no longer faces arrest and will return to Iraq for questioning. Salem Chalabi heads a tribunal set up to prosecute Saddam Hussein.

"I went to see the judge," Mr. Chalabi said at the briefing. "I think the matter is clear now for the judge."

Whatever the outcome, the development was a break in the case against the embattled Mr. Chalabi, whose fortunes have fallen in recent months as his relations with the Bush administration have soured. Information his organization, the Iraqi National Congress, provided about Iraq's weapons has been largely discredited, and this spring he was cut off from Pentagon financing.

Since then, he has been seeking new alliances, predominantly among religious Shiite groups, who could help provide Mr. Chalabi, a secular Shiite, with a new political base. The switch startled some Iraqis, who know Mr. Chalabi as a Western-style politician with American backing.

"He wanted to find another boat because his was sinking," said one former Iraqi government official who asked not to be named. "He has become decidedly Shiite in color."

Mr. Chalabi has stayed out of public view since the arrest warrant, spending most of the three weeks far from Baghdad, in Sulaimaniya in the north of Iraq. He returned three days ago, about the same time he learned that the arrest warrant had been lifted, said Abdul Aziz al-Kubaisy, his deputy for intelligence.

But at the news conference Wednesday, Mr. Chalabi did not look worried. He confidently recounted details of yet another of the day's events. Gunmen had opened fire on his convoy Wednesday morning as it returned from Najaf, the southern city where Mr. Chalabi had met with Iraq's highest Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Two guards were injured. Mr. Chalabi was unharmed.

"It was a deliberate ambush," he said.

But Mr. Chalabi's main message on Wednesday was political. He laid out a political program that foresaw the American military leaving Iraq in two years and would rid the Iraqi government of all American-appointed advisers, which number about 175, he said.

He endorsed a decidedly free-market economic plan. State subsidies for food and fuel would be replaced by cash payments, he said. The country's oil industry would be developed under contracts awarded to large multinational companies, he said.

"We're working to disseminate our program and to prepare candidates in consultation with other parties," ahead of elections to be held in January, he said.

Mr. Chalabi said he had met with Ayatollah Sistani in part to talk about the elections.

It is far from clear that Mr. Chalabi, despite his ambition and relatively substantial fortune, will be able to garner enough political support to place strongly in the elections.

And he is still under pressure from Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a longtime political rival. On Friday, Mr. Chalabi's organization was evicted from one of his main working residences under an order from Dr. Allawi. Guns were taken away from his security guards.

But as Wednesday's appearance showed, he has bounced back.

"Chalabi is a survivor," said another former Iraqi government official. "He has always come back. He never gives up on politics."


Qais Mizher, an Iraqi employee in The New York Times's Baghdad bureau,contributed reporting for this article.

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