Tue Apr 25, 10:19 AM ET
Iraqi prime minister designate Jawad al-Maliki said that he expected to have his cabinet line-up ready for approval in two weeks as hectic lobbying began for key ministerial posts.
"I believe that in the next 15 days we can have a new government and present it to parliament," Maliki told state television, amid concern a four-month power vacuum has fanned insurgent violence that Baghdad said has killed at least 123 people and wounded 153 over the past week.
An optimistic Maliki, whose nomination in place of outgoing Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari cleared the way for an end to the protracted deadlock, said agreements reached during negotiations over his own candidacy applied to posts in a future cabinet and would speed its formation.
"We have prior agreements ... that makes our work easier," he said.
Representatives of Iraq's other ethnic and religious groups were quick to stake their claims to ministerial jobs in the national unity government being formed by the Shiite prime minister designate.
Prominent Kurdish MP Mahmoud Othman told AFP he expected the Kurds to be assigned six of Iraq's 30 ministries, including the foreign affairs portfolio they hold in the outgoing government.
"If not, we want either the oil or finance ministry," Othman said, adding that the Kurds were not asking for security posts.
The main Sunni parliamentary bloc, the National Concord Front, played down the progress that had been made, saying it "was still premature to talk about ministries".
"But what we want is a broad coalition that is made up representatives from even non-parliamentary groups," said Zhafer al-Ani, spokesman of the Front which has 44 seats in the 275-member assembly.
A strong participation in the government by Sunni Arabs is seen as a key to weaning the former elite away from the longrunning anti-US insurgency.
As the political bargaining picked up pace, the urgency of a new government taking control was highlighted by fresh insurgent violence that left four dead.
In one attack, gunmen shot dead a man and his 10-year-old daughter in the restive city of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.
The latest violence follows seven car bombings and numerous shootings in Baghdad on Monday that left 20 people dead and about 100 wounded.
The defence ministry said eight people were arrested in a Baghdad mosque Tuesday on suspicion of involvement in Monday's car bombings.
"We found them inside the mosque making car bombs and they confessed their responsibility," ministry spokesman General Abdel Aziz Mohammed told AFP.
He said that rebels carried out 469 attacks in Iraq last week, of which 173 resulted in casualties.
"Of these 17 were car bomb attacks, including four suicide car bombings," Mohammed said.
Iraqi politicians have been under intense US pressure to form a national unity government as quickly as possible to get to grips with mounting sectarian violence and take the sting out of the insurgency raging in Sunni Arab areas.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld hailed the end of the protracted deadlock over the choice of prime minister as "a thrilling accomplishment."
But he warned it was reasonable to expect that insurgents would try to sabotage the formation of a new government by Maliki, who by law has 30 days to present his cabinet line-up to parliament.
"The new ministries named, and then approved by the parliament, will have to begin that difficult task of governing," Rumsfeld said. "It's a difficult assignment and it won't be easy for them."
US concern has been compounded by one of the bloodiest months for US troops since the 2003 invasion.
About 60 US servicemen have died in April alone, taking the military's death toll since the invasion to 2,392, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.
Rumsfeld, who faces criticism at home for botching the Iraq invasion by initially sending too few troops, said he hoped the United States would be able to reduce its troop commitment after key ministries assert themselves.
"As we are able to pass over more responsibility, one would think we would be able to continue reducing down our forces," he said.