Iraqis Form Government, With Crucial Posts Vacant

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Iraqi leaders on Saturday approved a full-term government here for the first time since the fall of Saddam Hussein more than three years ago, but one that appeared to lack the cohesion needed to quell the sectarian and guerrilla violence engulfing the country.

The Iraqi Parliament approved 36 ministers who will form a cabinet led by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a member of the dominant Shiite coalition that captured a majority of the votes cast in nationwide elections on Dec. 15. But three of the most important posts in the government — the Ministries of Defense, Interior and National Security — were left vacant because Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders could not agree on who should fill them.

Those three ministries are especially sensitive because each controls some part of Iraq's new security forces. That gives them a central role in fighting the guerrilla insurgency, but they have been accused of carrying out sectarian vendettas as well. Mr. Maliki decided to ask the Shiite-dominated Parliament for a vote on the other posts anyway, prompting 15 Sunni members of his coalition to walk out before the vote.

Mr. Maliki's cabinet includes representatives of Iraq's main ethnic and sectarian communities, including a Sunni Arab vice president and deputy prime minister. Blocs representing more than 80 percent of Parliament were part of Mr. Maliki's government, including a secular alliance represented by a former prime minister, Ayad Allawi. The vote on Saturday was the final step in the American-backed political program that began here in 2003 and culminated in full-term parliamentary elections in December. Nearly three years later, Iraq has a democratic Constitution that enshrines a federal state with a strongly Islamic cast, and a 275-member Parliament chosen for a four-year term.


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/world/middleeast/21iraq.html?hp&ex=1148184000&en=3c913e0774c3367a&ei=5094&partner=homepage