BAGHDAD — In the fractious world of Iraqi politics, October has been a month of unlikely courtships.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki took his shuttle campaign to Egypt, a predominantly Sunni state that has had warmer relations with Mr. Maliki’s main political rival, Ayad Allawi. Mr. Allawi’s multisectarian bloc, which includes most of Iraq’s Sunnis, won the most seats in the national elections in March, ahead of Mr. Maliki’s bloc, which is overwhelmingly Shiite. No alliance captured enough seats to form a new government.
At a news conference in Cairo after meeting with President Hosni Mubarak, Mr. Maliki announced that he was seeking “to involve Egyptian companies in reconstructing Iraq and also to develop political relations,” not to curry support for his bid for re-election.
The meeting came two days after Mr. Maliki met privately in the Iranian holy city of Qum with Moktada al-Sadr, a formerly bitter rival who this month threw his support behind Mr. Maliki. As prime minister, Mr. Maliki built his reputation in part by sending the military against militias loyal to Mr. Sadr, and the two camps had been scathing opponents, with several Sadrist ministers withdrawing from the Maliki government.
The meeting between the two men in Qum, where Mr. Sadr has been pursuing his clerical studies, was their first since the election. Mr. Sadr’s support added 40 seats to the 89 won by Mr. Maliki’s bloc, moving it closer to the 163 needed to form a government.
In Iran, Mr. Maliki also met with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who made their most favorable statements to date regarding his re-election bid.
The meeting with Mr. Sadr drew cynicism from Mr. Maliki’s rivals. “The enemy of Maliki is now his friend,” said Jabbar al-Jabbari, a member of Parliament allied with Mr. Allawi.
“The Sadrists went with Maliki under pressure from our neighbor,” meaning Iran, Mr. Jabbari said. He criticized Mr. Maliki’s tour of foreign capitals, saying the visits were aimed at keeping him in office, not governing.
“He’s prime minister, so he uses all the resources of the government to stay prime minister, and no one tells him this isn’t right.”
Both blocs have courted support of the Kurdistan Alliance, which controls 53 seats, but neither has specifically addressed the Kurds’ demands, said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of Parliament.
“They’re paralyzing the country,” Mr. Othman said. “They’re going to other countries, which is stupid. It lowers their credibility, and other countries have their own agendas.”
Since the pact with Mr. Sadr, relations between Mr. Maliki and the Americans have cooled, said Hachim al-Hassani, a leading figure in Mr. Maliki’s State of Law party.
“The United States made clear that they fear representation of the Sadrists in the Iraqi government,” said Mr. Hassani, former speaker of Parliament, conceding that the Sadrists’ anti-American, theocratic agenda was often at odds with his own party’s.
“But the best way to deal with groups like the Sadrists is to contain them,” he continued, “not isolate them and make them more dangerous. The United States needs to think twice about how to deal with the Sadrists.”
An American official who was not authorized to be quoted by name said, “We will be pleased and proud to work in partnership with any Iraqi government that is inclusive and reflects the results of the March elections.”
There are strong differences between Mr. Maliki and the Sadrists, especially on the roles of religion in government and of American troops.
The security agreement between Iraq and the United States calls for all American troops to leave by the end of next year. But Mr. Maliki has sought to buy American weaponry, which would require American troops for training and supervision.
Gawad Kahdum al-Jabouri, a Sadrist member of Parliament, said this was unacceptable. “The agenda of the Sadrists is against the Iraqi-American agreement,” he said. “We refuse any agreement or existence of U.S. military troops,” he said, adding, “We welcome American investment.”
Mr. Hassani said he thought Mr. Maliki’s bloc would be able to form a government by the end of the year, barring intervention from outside parties.
But Mr. Jabbari said that nothing was certain. “There’s no limit to how long it can go on,” he said. “There’s no deadline.”
The lack of government has stalled new legislation governing gas and oil revenue, but on Wednesday the oil ministry announced the auctioning of three major gas fields to four international companies, after an auction that had been twice postponed. Only five companies submitted bids. The announcement that a consortium of Korean and Kazakh companies won the rights to a field in Anbar Province set off peaceful protests in the area, where tribal leaders had supported a Qatari company.
Also in Iraq on Wednesday, gunmen near the northern city of Mosul killed a family of two men and three women. In Kirkuk, part of the disputed territory in northern Iraq claimed by both Kurds and Arabs, gunmen killed a Kurdish man near his home.