New government delayed as parties wrangle over roles

Despite the official certification of Iraq's election results yesterday, a new government is unlikely to be appointed for weeks, say senior election officials, as a result of continued wrangling over who will be the new Prime Minister.

Final results gave the Shiite clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance 140 seats, giving it the expected majority in the 275-member Parliament. But a two-thirds majority - or 182 seats - is needed to confirm the next President, two Vice-Presidents, the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. Current Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's secular party won 40 seats.

The Shiite front-runner appears to be Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a doctor and leader of the Dawa Party, one of the two main parties in the alliance, although Ahmed Chalabi, the former exile who was once a favourite of the Pentagon to lead a post-Saddam Iraq, is still being discussed as a possible alternative.

"We are having trouble getting everyone together for a vote," said Jewad Al-Maliky, a spokesman for the Dawa Party.

Kurdish parties, which came in second with 75 seats, have apparently agreed to support the alliance's candidate for Prime Minister in return for the presidency, though they have also offered to produce a compromise candidate for prime minister, if needed.

Kurdish officials said they would not accept a theocratic government. "We will reject, and we won't allow, the establishment of a theocratic state; we want separation between religion and state," said Noshirwan Mustafa.

The issue of when the 150,000 US troops stationed in Iraq will leave will also be high on the agenda for Iraq's new leaders. Some Shiites and many Sunnis insist that a framework for withdrawal is drawn up.

* The Pentagon has found that Iraqi insurgents can conduct 60 strikes a day and occasionally more, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday.

"We've tracked the number of attacks per day and what they can do is 50 to 60 attacks countrywide, with spikes. And that seems to be their capacity," Air Force General Richard Myers told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Myers, who testified with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, characterised the insurgency fighting some 150,000 US forces in Iraq as "a limited capacity".

- Independent and Reuters