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Iraq's Sunnis say they may form government

Iraq's parliament was to meet yesterday for only the second time since it was elected in December as a top Sunni politician warned that the minority blocs in the assembly could join hands to form the next government.

Four months after the national elections, Iraqi leaders have failed to form the country's first permanent parliament since the fall of former president Saddam Hussein due to bickering over the prime minister's post and other ministerial berths.

The plan to convene the assembly, which was elected in December, was announced as the US and the UN redoubled efforts to urge Iraqi leaders to agree on a government to help quell raging violence.

A key sticking point in negotiations appeared to move closer to a solution yesterday as embattled Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari softened his determination to remain in office.

An official from the Shiite alliance, which nominated Jaafari in an internal vote in February, read out a statement quoting Jaafari as saying his fate now rests with those who picked him.

"You have chosen me and I return back this choice to you to decide what you see appropriate," Jawad al-Maliki, an official from Jaafari's Dawa party, quoted him as saying.

"You'll find me totally prepared to accept your decision for the sake of the unity of the alliance," the official quoted him as saying.

Iraq's Kurdish and Sunni leaders have opposed Jaafari's candidacy, saying he has been unable to curb the sectarian violence that has ravaged the country since the bombing of a major Shiite shrine in Samarra in February.

With the Shiite alliance having so far failed to come up with a solution to the Jaafari issue, the Sunni bloc warned that it would soon take the matter into its hands.

"In the next two days if the alliance fails to come up with a solution, there would be no choice but to all other parliamentary blocs to join hands and form a government," said Zhafer al-Ani, spokesman of Sunni-led National Concord Front which has 44 seats in the assembly.

The non-Shiite blocs hold 145 seats in the 275-member parliament, more than the number required to form a government.

The Iraqi Constitution stipulates that the party forming the government must have a simple majority in the parliament.

Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said that leaders were zeroing in on candidates for other parliamentary posts.

Othman said that Jalal Talabani is the choice as president, Shiite leader Adel Abdel Mahdi as vice president, Sunni leader Tareq al-Hashemi as the other vice president, Sunni politician Adnan al-Dulaimi as the parliament speaker, Shiite sheikh Khalid al-Attiya as the deputy speaker and Kurdish lawmaker Aref Tayfur as the second deputy speaker.
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