By Mariam Karouny and Fredrik Dahl1 hour, 19 minutes ago
Iraq's parliament may vote on Saturday on a new government in which the country's main religious and ethnic groups will share power, officials said on Wednesday, signaling an end to months of political paralysis.
As Saddam Hussein's trial continued in a heavily guarded Baghdad courtroom, Iraq's prime minister-designate put the finishing touches to a unity government Washington hopes can quell an insurgency that erupted after Saddam's 2003 overthrow.
At least eight people were killed in two separate attacks in Baghdad and the town of Baquba north of the capital, underlining the security challenges facing the government led by Nuri al-Maliki, a combative Shi'ite politician.
Communal violence has soared in the five months since an election that was hailed as a sign most Iraqis, including the once dominant and now rebellious Sunni minority, could come together within the U.S.-sponsored political process.
Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a leading Sunni politician, told lawmakers he expected them to vote on a new cabinet in three days' time.
One deputy had asked him if the assembly's next session, scheduled for Saturday, would include a vote on the government.
Mashhadani replied: "That's what we have from the prime minister's office. We've had a note saying the prime minister wants to present his government to parliament on Saturday."
A source close to Maliki said he hoped to complete the cabinet on Thursday, four days before a legal deadline. However, there is still much bargaining and no certainty.
CONCESSIONS
Parliament must approve the appointments before Iraq's first full-term government since the U.S.-led invasion can take office. With most parties expected to be represented in cabinet, the vote is likely to be formality.
Although Sunni, secular and other parties, including members of Maliki's own Shi'ite Islamist bloc, said they were holding out for concessions, negotiators said a final deal was close.
"The government will hopefully be announced tomorrow or the day after," said Bahaa al-Araji, a senior aide to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, an influential figure in the dominant Shi'ite Alliance.
Maliki, who has won grudging respect from some Sunni leaders for his no-nonsense style, has faced some of his toughest opposition from within his own Alliance bloc.
One party in the Shi'ite coalition walked out of the negotiations in protest at losing the key Oil Ministry, which is now widely expected to go to another Alliance figure, Hussain al-Shahristani, a nuclear scientist jailed under Saddam.
Former exile Ahmad Chalabi has emerged as a strong candidate for another important post, in charge of the Interior Ministry. Chalabi, a secular Shi'ite was once Washington's preferred Iraqi leader before falling out of favor.
Whoever takes over the key security job faces the task of reining in dozens of armed groups linked to an array of political camps. Maliki has said this is a priority.
Over 130,000 U.S. troops are still battling al Qaeda and other Sunni insurgents, but with U.S. public opinion turning against the war, Washington is keen to start bringing them home.
In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain's roughly 8,000 troops should stay until the "job was done" and Iraqi army and police were able to handle security themselves.
"We need to sit down with that new government once it's formed and work out how we then ensure the rest of the buildup of the Iraqi forces takes place so that of course in time we can draw down," Blair said.
SADDAM TRIAL
A bombing and shooting attack killed four people and wounded 11 in the religiously mixed city of Baquba, and in Baghdad four civilians were killed by two roadside bombs, police said.
A Sudanese driver for an Arab diplomat in Baghdad has died after being shot as he tried to stop gunmen kidnapping the envoy, police said. Diplomat Naji al-Noaimi of the United Arab Emirates was still missing after being snatched on Tuesday.
At Saddam's trial, the judge said he would study a defense request to allow the former Iraqi leader and his half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti to testify on behalf of other defendants.
Judge Raouf Abdel Rahman adjourned the trial until May 22 after hearing witnesses for four minor Baath Party officials. The four are accused with Saddam and three other senior figures of involvement in a bloody crackdown that followed an attempt on the Iraqi leader's life in 1982.
(Additional reporting by Ibon Villelabeitia, Omar al-Ibadi, Aseel Kami, Ahmed Rasheed and Alastair Macdonald in Baghdad and by Adrian Croft in London)