32 bodies found as Maliki works on Iraqi cabinet

IRAQ: The bodies of 32 security force recruits were found in Baghdad yesterday and a wave of car bombs hit the city while Iraq…

IRAQ: The bodies of 32 security force recruits were found in Baghdad yesterday and a wave of car bombs hit the city while Iraq's prime minister-designate vowed to unite all ethnic and sectarian groups.

Jawad al-Maliki is working on choosing a cabinet, which will share power among Shia Muslims, Sunni Arabs and Kurds in a bid to end a Sunni insurgency and sectarian violence.

Mr Maliki said healing the divisions in post-war Iraq was his biggest job as its first permanent prime minister. "The main challenge that I see is the existence of a torn relationship in the Iraqi community with all the sectarian and ethnic backgrounds," said the tough-talking Shia politician.

Mr Maliki has four weeks to choose a new cabinet and form a government of national unity, widely seen as the only way to halt the sectarian violence.

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The cabinet and Mr Maliki's own appointment, made by president Jalal Talabani on Saturday, must be ratified by parliament.

A key test of his ability to lead and to unite will be his choice of interior minister, perhaps the most sensitive post given the brutal past many Iraqis endured under Saddam Hussein's rule and a present racked by relentless instability and violence.

"We want nothing but security and a safe community in which we can live and raise our children safely," said Wael Khamis (44). "All we have now is a hope and a dream of a better life. The coming government is our last chance. My wish is to take my family on a car ride without fear."

With Mr Maliki in the process of forming a coalition and ending four months of political paralysis, Shia neighbour Iran said there was no longer any need for talks with the US to discuss Iraq's problems.

"By God's will we think that right now, because of the presence of a permanent government of Iraq, there is no need," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in Tehran.

But while the political deadlock appears to be over, the bloodshed goes on.

The 32 bodies were found in two places, interior ministry sources said. All the victims were from the rebel stronghold of Ramadi, 110km (70 miles) west of the capital.

Two car bombs near Baghdad's Mustansiriya University killed at least five people and wounded 25, officials said. A car bomb near the health ministry killed three people and wounded 25. Four other bombings in the city wounded at least 27 people.

Guerrillas attacked a police station near Saddam's home town of Tikrit, killing four policemen.

In Baghdad's heavily fortified so-called Green Zone, the court trying Saddam for crimes against humanity heard that signatures of the former leader and six co-accused on documents linking them to the killing of 148 Shias in the 1980s were genuine.

The prosecution had demanded that the court commission a team of criminal experts to authenticate signatures and handwriting of the defendants.

Saddam and his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti have refused to give samples of their writing, but both have said there was no crime in prosecuting the 148 from the village of Dujail because they were accused of trying to kill the former Iraqi president.

The trial was adjourned until May 15th to give the defence time to present its witnesses in the next session.