Iraq: A new Iraqi government may not be in place by the time the new parliament meets on Wednesday because the two main political blocs - the Shia and the Kurds - cannot agree on the programme and make-up of the country's first elected national administration in decades.
The two camps were due to publicly formalise a deal today. But six weeks after January's historic vote, and with the insurgency still raging in the Sunni triangle, leaders of the United Iraqi Alliance, the main Shia group, and the Kurdistan Democratic Alliance, which came second in the elections, admit that a final agreement remains elusive.
"We have agreed on the principles of a government of national unity, but remain divided over details," Iraq's interim vice-president, Dr Rowsch Nuri Schaways, a Kurd, said yesterday.
The delay in forming the government has caused frustration and anxiety among many ordinary Iraqis while mainly Sunni Arab insurgents stage ever-bloodier attacks in their campaign to derail the political process. "The discussions with the Shia alliance about the government will probably continue into the new parliament," Dr Schways said.
He spoke after Kurdish party leaders met in the northern resort town of Salaheddin to consider a three-page draft agreement, drawn up with their Shia counterparts in Baghdad, that would act as a blueprint for a coalition government.
"The Kurds want everything written out and signed, while the Shia appear to be in favour of keeping it all a bit more vague," said Dr Mahmoud Osman, a senior Kurdish politician, who is close to the talks.
"But there doesn't seem to be any major ideological clash and both sides say the talks have been conducted in a professional and respectful atmosphere."