Iraq government takes shape

BAGHDAD - Iraq's new government is finally taking shape and could be unveiled this week, negotiators said today, signalling a compromise among sectarian and ethnic factions to rally behind Shi'ite strongman Nuri al-Maliki.

Guerrillas killed 19 people in one incident in Baghdad -- gunmen shot five men police said were members of the Mehdi Army Shi'ite militia and then set off a car bomb in the same bus garage that killed a further 14 people and wounded more than 30.

Senior negotiators from most groups involved in efforts to form a national unity government told Reuters Maliki could name his cabinet as early as Thursday, before the Muslim weekend and four days ahead of a constitutional deadline set a month ago.

"The government is in its final form now. Maliki will absolutely meet the constitutional deadline and will announce the government before it," said Dhafir al-Ani, spokesman of the main Sunni bloc in parliament, the Iraqi Accordance Front.

"Nobody wants him to fail. Even those who oppose the political process will not put up obstacles."

A senior Shi'ite negotiator said: "The government will be ready soon ... I mean probably in the next 48 hours."

All played down the significance of a widely leaked list indicating which party would take which ministry, saying there were still disputes, notably on the health ministry. Many names are still in play for key posts, including interior minister.

One surprise could be the nomination of controversial former exile Ahmad Chalabi to that vital security job, several sources said. The much-criticised interior minister may go to finance.

Five months since an election hailed as a sign most Iraqis, including the once dominant and now rebellious Sunni minority, could come together behind the US-sponsored political process, communal violence has soared, raising questions on how far any new government can stem bloodshed and a mounting refugee crisis.

Today, Iraqi police sources said gunmen broke into a house where an United Arab Emirates diplomat was staying and apparently abducted him. The UAE's state news agency said contact had been lost with the diplomat, Naji al-Noaimi.

In a three-year-old political system used to pushing any deadline to its limit -- and indeed beyond -- an early end to the talks may be a sign Maliki has managed to put his inclusive rhetoric into practice in his month as prime minister-designate.

Once a hawkish defender of the Shi'ite Islamist corner in parliament, some minority leaders and Western diplomats praise what they call his new-found statesmanship and portray him as a classic hardliner strong enough to make concessions for peace.

He has faced some of his toughest opposition within his own Alliance bloc. One party in the Shi'ite coalition walked out of the negotiations in protest at losing the oil ministry.

It is now widely expected to go to another Alliance figure, former nuclear physicist and dissident Hussain al-Shahristani.

Similarly, followers of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Mehdi Army, are making veiled threats of a walkout if they do not retain the health ministry, promised to the Sunnis.

Some officials said it was still possible Maliki may leave sensitive posts such as interior and defence vacant if he cannot resolve disputes this week. The former is expected to go to a Shi'ite and the latter to a Sunni -- but both, not least due to heavy US pressure -- are subject to a veto by every party.

Chalabi, a wealthy, US-educated businessman turned secular Shi'ite power broker on his return home, has emerged as a possible interior minister, sources from several parties said.

Though the outgoing deputy prime minister failed to win a seat in December and has long lost his pre-war clout with the Pentagon, he has won respect for his handling of Iraq's battered economy in the past year and is a consummate political survivor.

Whoever takes over the interior ministry in particular faces a mammoth task of reining in dozens of armed groups linked to political camps across the spectrum.

Over 130,000 US troops are still mainly battling al Qaeda and other Sunni insurgents three years after overthrowing Saddam Hussein. But with public opinion turning against the war, Washington has made clear it wants to start bringing them home.

The US military announced the deaths of three soldiers today in two roadside bomb blasts around Baghdad.

Defence witnesses for Saddam's lesser-known co-defendants gave evidence in their trial today, hoping to show that four minor Baath party officials caught up in the trial were innocent of crimes against humanity.

Witnesses including sons of one defendant said the accused too suffered in the reprisals, and saw their farms razed. Saddam and three other senior figures were not in court.

- REUTERS