Short glass fiber Type E was coated with electrically conducting polyaniline (PAn) by in situ chemical polymerization. The resulting PAn coated glass fiber, with surface conductivity of 3.3 x 10(-1) S/cm, was melt-compounded with isotactic polypropylene (iPP). Polypropylene grafted with maleic anhydride was investigated as an adhesion promoter for these composites. Differential scanning calorimeter and polarized light microscopy indicates that the PAn coated glass fiber has a strong nucleating activity towards iPP. Scanning electron microscopy showed the improvement in the wetting and dispersion of the fibers when the adhesion promoter was added, although this also led to fiber encapsulation and lowering the electrical conductivity of the composites. The adhesion promoter greatly improved the Young's modulus of the composites, and a reaction between the maleic anhydride groups of the adhesion promoter and the PAn was proposed. Composites with an electrical conductivity greater than 10(-9) S/cm were achieved using a 30 wt % of PAn coated glass fiber. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.