Iraqi leaders agree on unity government

Iraqi leaders have agreed on a unity government to be presented to parliament today, negotiators said yesterday, adding that the key interior and defence ministry portfolios would be filled later.

"The government will be announced tomorrow," a senior aide to Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki told Reuters.

The aide said parties had given themselves a week to reach a deal on the interior and defence ministries and for efforts to quell bloodshed plaguing post-war Iraq.

Mr Maliki, a Shi'ite Islamist, would, in the meantime, take charge of the Interior Ministry while Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni, would head the Defence Ministry, he said.

The agreement on a grand coalition of Shi'ites, minority Sunni Arabs and Kurds, which the United States counts on to halt a slide towards civil war, signalled an end to months of political deadlock following December's elections.

Parliament is scheduled to meet today to approve Mr Maliki's government, a vote that is largely seen as a formality as most of the assembly's parties would be represented in the new cabinet.

Political sources said the oil ministry top job would be given to nuclear scientist and Mr Maliki's fellow Shi'ite Islamist Hussain al-Shahristani. This is an important portfolio for lifting Iraqis out of poverty.

The formation of Iraq's first full-term government since the US-led invasion in 2003 will be hailed as major progress in Washington and London, which are keen to start drawing down their combined 140,000 troops in the country.

But analysts cautioned that while a government encompassing Iraq's main ethnic and religious groups was a key step forward, that may have been the relatively easy part in a country where people risk their lives by just venturing outside their homes. Mr Maliki, whose no-nonsense approach and inclusive discourse have won him grudging respect from rivals, faces huge challenges in tackling bloodshed and rebuilding the economy.

Many Iraqis complain that daily life has worsened since Saddam Hussein's ouster, with a dearth of jobs and frequent power and water cuts. Four million people now live in extreme poverty, according to a UN-backed Iraqi study released this month.

The oil industry, which has yet to see the recovery that Washington had expected would follow the invasion, suffers from sabotage, smuggling, corruption and political interference.

Analyst Joost Hiltermann said stability in Iraq apart from a unity government also required the revision of a constitution approved in a referendum last year and the building of security forces free of sectarian and ethnic agendas.

The once-dominant Sunni minority fears the constitution as it stands, by giving Iraq's regions more powers, would deprive them of revenue from oil-rich southern and northern areas dominated by majority Shi'ites and Kurds.

"I think (forming the government) is the easiest to accomplish," said Hiltermann, of the International Crisis Group think-tank.

Sectarian violence has soared after the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in the city of Samarra in February, with hundreds of people killed every month in the capital, Baghdad, alone, sparking fears of full-blown communal conflict.

The United States' 133,000 troops in Iraq also suffer daily casualties. One soldier was seriously wounded when his vehicle struck a bomb in Baghdad yesterday, a day after a similar attack near the capital killed four soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter.