IRAQ: Iraq's new parliament met for the first time yesterday, more than six weeks after the election, but rival blocs failed to agree on a government and al-Qaeda insurgents targeted the meeting with a mortar barrage.
During the two-hour inaugural ceremony, politicians pledged stability in Iraq, after windows rattled and lights flickered when mortars struck the fortified Green Zone compound. No damage or casualties were reported in the attack claimed by al-Qaeda's wing in Iraq.
Elsewhere, an explosion hit a house used as the offices of the Baghdad Mirror. Ambulances rushed to the scene but police said later there were no casualties.
The session of the parliament was described by US president George Bush as a "hopeful moment". Iraqi politicians said it was a step forward for the country despite a failure to appoint a government. "We are part of history," said Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, a candidate for oil minister. "This assembly has to succeed in charting the principles of a democratic, united Iraq."
But without a government in place, the parliament cannot yet draft legislation to try to bring normality to a country plagued by relentless violence.
The Shia Islamist alliance that won 140 seats - just over half of the 275-member National Assembly - and the Kurdish coalition that came second with 75 seats are deadlocked in negotiations over a government that have dragged on for weeks.
There is tentative agreement that Ibrahim Jaafari of the Shia Dawa party will be prime minister and Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani will be president, with a Sunni Arab candidate probably being offered the job of parliament speaker.
But talks have stalled over Kurdish demands to expand their northern autonomous zone to include the strategic oil city of Kirkuk and over the fate of the Kurdish peshmerga militias, which Shias want absorbed in Iraq's official security forces.
The Kurds also want guarantees Iraq will remain secular.
Mr Jaafari said a deal would be reached soon. "Within two weeks you will see the birth of a new government," he said after the parliament meeting.
Politicians had hoped for a deal before parliament sat, but one Shia official described recent political bargaining as "arguments of the deaf". Under Iraq's interim constitution, parliament must agree on a president and two vice-presidents by a two-thirds majority.
Those three will then appoint a prime minister. The assembly must also oversee the writing of a permanent constitution.
Current prime minister Iyad Allawi and president Ghazi al-Yawar, both of whom keep their jobs until a new government is agreed, told the assembly the process must be inclusive and involve Sunni Arabs, who have little parliamentary representation after many of them stayed away from the polls.
Meanwhile, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said yesterday he hoped to withdraw troops from Iraq starting in September, but that the timing was not fixed and could be changed if necessary. "There's never been a fixed date," Mr Berlusconi said. "It was only my hope...If it is not possible, it is not possible. The solution should be agreed with the allies."
In response to Tuesday's announcement by Mr Berlusconi, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said the troop reduction would not jeopardise the US-led mission in Iraq.- (Reuters)