Deadlock delays start of Iraq parliament meeting

BAGHDAD - Iraqi politicians delayed the start of a session of parliament on Tuesday for last-minute talks to try to overcome a damaging impasse on forming a government two months after historic elections.

As lawmakers haggled inside the fortified Green Zone, mortar blasts echoed across central Baghdad but there were no immediate reports of casualties. Guerrillas targeted the first parliament meeting two weeks ago with mortars.

Officials originally announced a one-hour postponement until midday (4 a.m. EST). But more than an hour after that the session had still not begun, with politicians unable to agree on who would take the key position of parliamentary speaker.

The Shi'ite Islamist alliance that came top in the election and the Kurdish coalition that came second have agreed that the post should go to a Sunni Arab, part of their efforts to reach out to the minority that dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein but which has been left with little political representation.

Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni Arab who is currently Iraq's president, has turned down the post, officials say, and has not been persuaded to change his mind.

The 17 Sunni Arabs in the 275-member parliament favor Adnan al-Janabi as their candidate, but he is an ally of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi who has so far declined to join the government, saying his bloc will stay in opposition.

The Shi'ite alliance is backing Fawaz al-Jarba -- a Sunni who joined the mainly Shi'ite bloc. But other Sunnis are against this as he is seen as too close to the Shi'ite alliance, Sunni parliamentarian Meshaan Jibouri said.

"This is the fault of the Shi'ites and the Kurds who failed to bring Allawi into the government," he told Reuters.

Jibouri said that if Jarba was pushed through as speaker -- which the Shi'ites could do with their parliamentary majority -- other Sunni Arabs would walk out of the session, leaving attempts to draw them into politics in tatters.

If the assembly fails to agree on a speaker it will be another embarrassing setback. Many Iraqis are increasingly angry over the failure of politicians to agree a government two months after the polls. Several government officials say key projects are on hold and the delay is benefiting insurgents.

Once a speaker is agreed, the 275-member National Assembly's next task will be to elect a president and two vice presidents. Two-thirds majorities are needed for that, which will mean the Shi'ites and Kurds must reach a deal to muster enough votes.

The presidential triumvirate will then have two weeks to choose a prime minister, who will then appoint a cabinet.

Hussein al-Shahristani, a Shi'ite nuclear scientist who spent 12 years in Saddam's jails, was expected to be named as one of the deputy speakers.

The Shi'ites and Kurds have broad agreement that Shi'ite Ibrahim Jaafari will be the next prime minister with veteran Kurdish politician Jalal Talabani taking the president's post.

The two vice presidents are expected to be interim Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, a Shi'ite, and the Sunni Arab Yawar.

But officials have not agreed on the distribution of cabinet posts. The Kurds are expected to retain the foreign ministry, with the defense ministry going to a Sunni Arab. But the key oil ministry is a source of disagreement -- the Kurds covet it, but the Shi'ite alliance insists it should get the ministry.

Cracks are also appearing within the Shi'ite alliance, with some members voicing doubts about Jaafari.

As politicians focus on horse-trading, insurgents are pressing on with their campaign of violence.

Three Romanian journalists were kidnapped in Iraq on Monday, Romania's president said.

Romanian media said Marie Jeanne Ion and Sorin Miscoci of Prima TV and Ovidiu Ohanesian of Romania Libera newspaper were snatched in Baghdad. They were the latest foreigners to be seized in a wave of kidnapping that has swept Iraq.

Ion's mother told Romanian television her daughter sent a text message from her mobile telephone saying: "We're kidnapped. This is not a joke."

In Kirkuk, a car bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol and the convoy of a local official, killing one person and wounding 15. In Basra, the head of the South Oil company survived an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb exploded beside his car. Police said nobody was wounded.

- REUTERS