Kurdish leader Talabani to be named Iraq president

BAGHDAD - Iraq's squabbling factions have reached agreement on the country's next president and vice presidents in a key step towards overcoming a political stalemate and forming a new government.

Leaders of the main political blocs said veteran Kurdish politician Jalal Talabani would be named president at a parliament meeting on Wednesday, more than nine weeks after millions of Iraqis braved insurgent bombs to vote.

Politicians said the two vice presidents will be Adel Abdul Mahdi, a Shi'ite who was finance minister in the outgoing government, and Sunni Arab tribal leader Ghazi Yawar, the previous president.

The Islamist-led Shi'ite alliance that won a slim majority in parliament and the Kurdish coalition that came second in the polls have been arguing over the shape of the new government for weeks.

They have also been trying to include representatives of the Sunni Arab minority that dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein but was left sidelined after most Sunni Arabs stayed away from the January 30 polls. There are only 17 Sunni Arab lawmakers in the 275-member parliament.

Disagreement over which Sunni Arab would be vice president held up a deal, but political leaders said late on Tuesday that Yawar had been chosen over elder statesman Adnan Pachachi.

Once the presidential council is appointed it must name a prime minister, who will choose a cabinet. Shi'ites and Kurds have agreed that Islamist Shi'ite leader Ibrahim Jaafari will be prime minister, taking over from secular Shi'ite Iyad Allawi.

Jaafari is expected to be officially appointed on Thursday, political leaders said.

Many Iraqis have complained that politicians have let them down by taking so long to form a government. Several Iraqi officials say the delay has benefited Iraq's insurgents.

INSURGENT ATTACKS

Dozens of insurgents fought US and Iraqi troops in a remote area east of Baghdad on Monday, the US army said, adding two Americans and an Iraqi soldier were killed.

US officers said the battle erupted as two Iraqi army battalions were carrying out a "cordon and search operation" in the easterly Diyala province.

"The mission to search for weapons cache sites in the area uncovered dozens of terrorists and a firefight ensued," a military statement said.

Around 100 US troops with Bradley fighting vehicles moved in to back up the Iraqi forces, and called in air support. The area was still being searched on Tuesday, the US army said.

"There were two to three dozen insurgents there, with evidence of prepared fighting positions," said Major Richard Goldenberg, spokesman for the 42nd Infantry Division.

Recent weeks have seen a number of large-scale engagements between US troops and guerrillas -- an unusual development as insurgents generally favour hit-and-run attacks.

On Saturday, more than 40 US soldiers and 12 prisoners were wounded when insurgents attacked Abu Ghraib jail west of Baghdad with suicide bombs, mortars and small-arms fire. The battle raged for around an hour.

Last month scores of guerrillas attacked a US convoy near Salman Pak southeast of Baghdad. The US military said it killed at least two dozen insurgents.

More than 1,160 US troops have died in action since the March 2003 invasion, most of them at the hands of insurgents. Over the same period, around 6,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the insurgency, Iraq's human rights minister said.

In Baghdad on Tuesday, a US soldier was killed and four were wounded by a roadside bomb.

Roadside bombs also killed four civilians in Salman Pak and two policemen in the southern city of Basra, police said. A car bomb in southwest Baghdad killed an Iraqi civilian.

In Hilla, south of Baghdad, a local government official was assassinated, police said.

- REUTERS