The pressure on Iraq's leaders increased today as President Bush called for an end to the political "vacuum" he said was harming the country and the acting speaker of Parliament scheduled a legislative session for Thursday, even as Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari reportedly rejected a deal among Shiite parties that called for his ouster.
Mr. Jaafari told a news conference that it was "out of the question" for him to step aside as his party's nominee, news services reported. Last weekend, Mr. Jaafari's main Shiite rivalsd agreed that his Dawa party could retain control of the prime minister's post if someone else was chosen.
The process of forming a new government has been stuck for months. Kurdish and Sunni politicians are adamantly opposed to Mr. Jaafari, who beat other Shiite leaders for the nomination for prime minister by a single vote in a caucus session. But while the Shiite bloc is Parliament's largest, Mr. Jaafari's opponents have enough votes to block his selection.
Mr. Bush said today that the United States was working to ensure that the political process in Iraq takes shape soon.
"We fully recognize that the Iraqis must step up and form a unity government so that those who went to the polls to vote recognize that a government will be in place to respond to their needs," Mr. Bush said in remarks at the White House.
The only sign of forward motion today came when Adnan Pachachi, the venerable Sunni leader who is Parliament's acting speaker, announced that he was convening a session of the news legislature on Thursday.
Mr. Pachachi had originally scheduled a session for Monday, in the hope of putting pressure on the various political parties to find a compromise. He delayed the gathering when Shiite leaders announced a possible deal over the weekend, although he said he was making the postponement "against my better judgment."
In the deal, leaders of rival Shiite parties agreed that Mr. Jaafari's Dawa party could nominate a new prime minister from within its ranks if Mr. Jaafari would step aside. Dawa party leaders said earlier this week that they would leave a decision on the arrangement to Mr. Jaafari.
But in a televised news conference today, he firmly rejected the idea. "As a matter of principle, I think the idea of making a concession is, for me at least, out of the question," Mr. Jaafari said.
He noted that he was chosen by an internal vote of the alliance, which had won its predominant position in democratic elections, news services said.
American officials have also made it clear that they would like Mr. Jaafari to step aside.
President Bush directly linked the success of the American mission in Iraq to political developments there, saying that "vacuums" in the political process create opportunity for harm, and that "victory" would be achieved when a sustainable democracy is in place.
"I don't expect everybody to agree with my decision to go into Iraq, but I do want the American people to understand that failure in Iraq is not an option, that failure in Iraq would make the security situation for our country worse and that success in Iraq will begin to lay the foundation of peace for generations to come," Mr. Bush said.
Recent polls show that support in the United States for the war in Iraq is waning.
Meanwhile, the violence that is widely believed to be fueled by the country's political instability continued. Insurgents overnight detonated a building under construction as a police station in south Baghdad, Iraqi officials said today. Five bodies were found dumped at the Rustumiya sewage plant, and two roadside bombs killed one person and wounded at least 12 others, including 10 police officers.
On Tuesday, Iraqi troops faced sporadic small-arms fire for the second day in a row as they pushed block by block through the predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhood of Adhamiya on Tuesday and sought to tame a local show of armed force and resistance. A booby-trapped car exploded in Baquba when police arrived to examine a body left inside, wounding one bystander.
And the American military announced today that a soldier had died of wounds sustained when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb north of Baghdad on Tuesday.
Also today, the judge in the trial of Saddam Hussein read a report from handwriting experts authenticating Mr. Hussein's writing on documents introduced earlier in the case. The prosecution has asserted that Mr. Hussein signed death warrants for 148 residents of a Shiite village where he survived an assassination attempt.
The judge announced that a new panel of five handwriting experts will also examine the documents. Most of Mr. Hussein's co-defendants have charged that the signatures are forgeries, while Mr. Hussein has refused to confirm or deny this. The judge did not say, however, whether the new panel would be made up of experts independent of the government, as defense lawyers have requested.
The trial will resume next week.