Iraqi leaders end deadlock

Tough-talking Shi'ite Jawad al-Maliki was tasked to form a coalition government by Iraqi leaders yesterday, ending a four-month political deadlock that many feared could pitch the country into a sectarian civil war.

"We are going to form a family that will not be based on sectarian or ethnic backgrounds," Maliki told reporters, seeking to shed a hardline Shi'ite image and present himself as a prime minister able to unite Shi'ite Muslims, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

But in his first policy speech, Maliki called for Iraq's powerful militias to be merged with US-trained security forces - an explosive issue in the country because militias are tied to political parties and operate along religious lines.

"Arms should be in the hands of the government. There is a law that calls for the merging of militias with the armed forces," said Maliki, nominated by the ruling Shi'ite Alliance, the largest bloc in parliament after December elections.

The United States, which had blamed the four months of political paralysis for fuelling violence, hopes a national unity government will foster stability in Iraq and enable it to start bringing home its more than 130,000 troops.

"This is a good day for Iraq. It is an important day for Iraq," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a conference call with reporters in Washington. "This is someone with whom we can work."

Four US soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad yesterday, the US military said in a statement. A total of 2,385 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the March 2003 US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

Maliki, who has 30 days to present his cabinet to parliament, will have to tackle an insurgency that draws support from the minority Sunni community and sectarian bloodshed that has exploded since a February bombing of a Shi'ite shrine.

Sunnis held sway under Saddam's rule but the majority Shi'ites are now the leading force in politics.

Maliki must also rescue oil-rich Iraq's economy, which has been starved of foreign investment because of the violence.

Sunni Islamist Mahmoud al-Mashhadani was elected as parliamentary speaker. A former medical officer in Saddam's army, he was jailed for joining outlawed Islamist groups.