The governing Shiite coalition called on Iraqis to accept results showing the religious bloc leading in parliamentary elections and moved ahead with efforts to form a "national unity" government.
But as they reached out on Saturday to Sunni Arabs and others, senior officials in the United Iraqi Alliance deepened the postelection turmoil by claiming that Islamic extremists and those still loyal to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein were at the forefront of those questioning the results.
At least one Sunni Arab leader said he was upset by the Shiite comments.
Violence in Iraq left at least nine people dead. Gunmen killed eight people around Baghdad and a US soldier died from wounds sustained in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in northern Iraq.
The soldier was assigned to the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade and was wounded in an attack while on patrol near the town of Hawijah, the military said.
Meanwhile, militants released a video of a Jordanian hostage and gave that country three days to cut ties with the Baghdad government and free a female would-be suicide bomber whose explosives belt failed to go off during Nov. 9 attacks that killed 60 people in Amman.
Al-Arabiya satellite channel, which broadcast parts of the video, did not specify if the militants threatened to kill the hostage, Mahmoud Suleiman Saidat, if the deadline was not met.
Jordan's government rejected the demands.
"Jordan will not succumb to any blackmail or pressure whatever the source is," Nasser Judeh, a Jordanian government spokesman, said.
Saidat, a Jordanian Embassy driver, was kidnapped on Tuesday. The video had a sign identifying the kidnappers as the Hawk Brigades, a previously unknown group.
Baghdad's tiny Christian community celebrated a somber Christmas Eve in Baghdad, with a few dozen Catholics holding Mass in the early afternoon to avoid traveling after dark -- one of the most dangerous times in the Iraqi capital. An 11pm curfew also bans all traffic.
The Alliance, headed by the cleric Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, said preliminary results showing them with a clear lead in the Dec. 15 elections were not the result of fraud or intimidation. They charged that many violations took place in Sunni Arab areas, and claimed that many of its opponents conspired with insurgents to alter results.
"There will be no going back and no new elections," Jawad al-Maliki, a senior Alliance official, said at a news conference. "The results must be accepted and the will of the people must be respected."
He added that the Alliance had been expecting to win more seats.
"The opponents have made it clear through their statements and warnings that they stand alongside the terrorists."
He was referring to statements by senior Sunni Arab politicians, including Adnan al-Dulaimi, the head of the main Sunni Arab coalition known as the Iraqi Accordance Front, who openly thanked some insurgent groups for not attacking polling stations, and to reports that masked militants were guarding some of them.
The Alliance's harsh comments demonstrated the difficulty that Iraqi parties will face in forming a government after final election results are released early next month.
The officials added that the Alliance had begun talks with other groups about the possibility of forming a "national unity government." But they ruled out having anyone other than a Shiite member of their religious bloc become Iraq's new prime minister.
"The door is open for dialogue with our brothers and partners because we believe that Iraq cannot stand up without its main components," al-Maliki said.
Many people outside the Alliance allege that last week's elections were unfair to Sunni Arabs and secular Shiite groups.
Sunni Arab and secular Shiite factions are demanding that an international body review the fraud complaints, warning that they may boycott the new legislature. The UN has rejected an outside review.
About 1,500 complaints have been lodged about the elections, including at least 35 the Iraqi election commission said could be serious enough to change the results in certain areas.
But Adel al-Lami, general director of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, said an initial review of the complaints showed "they don't significantly affect the results of the vote."
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