BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 22 — Breaking months of political paralysis, Parliament installed the cornerstones of Iraq's first permanent post-invasion government on Saturday, approving a president, a speaker and their deputies, and formally giving the Shiite prime minister nominee the task of forming a cabinet.
Under the Constitution, the prime minister nominee, Jawad al-Maliki, has 30 days to complete the government, a duty that Iraqi and American officials have said will be crucial to restoring confidence in the public leadership and ending the raging sectarian violence that has brought this country to the brink of civil war.
"We are going to form a family that will not be based on sectarian or ethnic backgrounds," he said at a news conference on Saturday.
Parliament's actions ended a bitter two-month deadlock over the prime minister post. The Shiite bloc's first candidate, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, was fiercely opposed by Sunni Arabs, Kurds and even some within the Shiite alliance, who regarded him as weak and inept. Mr. Jaafari finally capitulated Thursday, opening the door for Mr. Maliki's ascent and Parliament's votes.
Political leaders sought to put that period of rancor behind them on Saturday, hailing the opportunity for building a unity government and tackling the country's many crises. "We can't say there won't be any obstacles in the future, but huge obstacles have been removed," Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Shiite bloc, said before the session. "We will start the process and move quickly."
Writing on paper ballots, with the results tallied in marker pen on a large whiteboard, the legislators voted to keep the current president, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, in his post. Parliament also approved two vice presidents: Tariq al-Hashemi, the leader of the main Sunni Arab bloc, and Adel Abdul Mahdi, a Shiite who was a vice-president under Mr. Jaafari..
Mahmoud Mashhadani, a Sunni Islamist who opposed the American-led invasion in 2003, was elected speaker, while the deputy speaker posts went to Khalid al-Attiya, a Shiite, and Aref Tayfour, a Kurd.
Violence around the country underscored some of the challenges the new government will face.
Four American soldiers were killed Saturday when a homemade bomb detonated next to their vehicle during a combat patrol south of Baghdad, the American military command said. A fifth American soldier died in a separate attack south of Baghdad, the military said.
An improvised bomb exploded in a marketplace in Miqdadiya, north of Baghdad, setting a shop on fire, according to the police. When firefighters arrived at the site, the police said, another bomb exploded, killing a firefighter and a civilian and wounding 15 civilians.
Australian military officials said Saturday that an Australian soldier had shot himself in the head in a "tragic accident" in Baghdad's heavily fortified international zone, The Associated Press reported. He was the Australian military's first casualty since the Iraq war began in 2003.
After the Iraqi parliamentary vote, President Bush, on a four-day trip to California, said the new Iraqi government was "an opportunity for America to open a new chapter in our partnership with the Iraqi people."
Speaking at the California Highway Patrol Academy in Sacramento, he said the United States would "work with the new Iraqi government to reassess our tactics, adjust our methods and strengthen our mutual efforts to achieve victory in this central front in the war on terror," adding: "The new Iraqi government will assume growing responsibility for their nation's security. And as more Iraqi forces stand up, American forces will stand down."
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hailed the Parliament's action as an important milestone and described Mr. Maliki as someone the Bush administration could work with. But reflecting the administration's growing concern that the recent political paralysis had led to more instability, she called for the new government to end sectarian strife in its security forces and deliver services to pacify the country's most troubled areas.
"There obviously will be now a lot of work to do," she said in a telephone conference call with State Department reporters. "Obviously the security situation is key. This is going to be a government that needs our help." She added that the United States would "intensify" its involvement in training ministries and local governments to deliver services with an independent civil service.
The results of the voting in Parliament were largely a foregone conclusion, having been settled in meetings among political leaders during the past several days. The key to the breakthrough, officials said, was convincing Mr. Jaafari to step aside.
Shortly before 3 p.m. on Saturday, the scheduled hour for the session, most of Iraq's top political leaders and the American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, slipped into a conference room in the Convention Center, where the legislature meets. They exited half an hour later, and Mr. Khalilzad exclaimed, "It's all been cooked, all the ingredients are there!" He moved his hands together in the air as if stirring a big pot. "The temperature is just right!"
Mr. Mashhadani's candidacy worried many Shiite leaders, who regard him as hard-line and provocative. For their part, some Sunni leaders have viewed Mr. Maliki with distrust, saying he is too sectarian.
But according to several politicians interviewed Saturday, the vote was secured by a hard-fought deal that required the Shiites to back Mr. Mashhadani in return for a Sunni guarantee of support for Mr. Maliki.
"The whole political process is a process of compromise," said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the national security adviser and a Shiite. "Even though some of the candidates are unpalatable for the other blocs, they will accept them."
Mr. Khalilzad, in a news conference, said the process "was not your typical post-election division of posts between different members of a coalition." He added, "This was, in part, peacemaking among people who have not agreed, some of whom have been involved in active conflict against the new order."
After the vote, however, several politicians said they had been unsettled by Mr. Mashhadani's speech during the session, a full-throated address in which, oddly, he invoked an ancient form of justice to express a larger point about democratic harmony.
"The unity of Iraqis is an obligation for all of us," he said, "Any hand or tongue that harms this unity by wrongdoing or provocation deserves to be cut off."
Mahmoud Othman, a member of Parliament and senior official in the Kurdistan Alliance, called the remark "alarming."
Political leaders acknowledged that more feuding likely lay ahead. The selection of a cabinet is expected to be contentious, with the main political blocs jockeying over the deputy prime minister posts and the leadership of more than two dozen ministries. Of those, the nominees for the Interior and Defense Ministries will come under extraordinary scrutiny because of their importance to the American-backed push to rid the country's security forces of sectarian influences.
"Arms should be in the hands of the government," Mr. Maliki said during the news conference.
The legislative session, only the second since elections last December, took place in a hall within the Convention Center. It was largely a picture of decorum and civility, though it was marred by a faulty air-conditioning system that turned the room into a mild sauna. Representatives wiped sweat from their brows and fanned their faces with documents.