Incoming Iraqi PM fails to decide on candidates

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's incoming prime minister failed to reach agreement Friday with political leaders on who will run the key defense and interior ministries but said he will present his Cabinet to parliament anyway with temporary heads in those posts.

Nouri al-Maliki's announcement came as roadside bombs and other attacks killed 17 Iraqis. His decision to push ahead with forming a government was yet another sign of his determination to waste no time addressing Iraq's security -- his administration's top priority.

Already he has shortened the Cabinet appointment process so that with parliament's expected approval Saturday, ministers can be inaugurated the same day.

After meeting with political representatives, the prime minister-designate said his Cabinet had been settled except for the two contested slots, and that he would present his nominees to the 275-member parliament on Saturday.

"We decided on the names of the ministers and we will announce them" Saturday "except for interior and defense ministries. Both will be acting ministers until we will choose the best ministers for those posts," he said.

Sunni Arabs want the Defense Ministry, which runs the army; the Shiites want the Interior Ministry, which controls the police.

In the interim, deputy parliament speaker Khalid al-Attiyah said, al-Maliki will serve as interior minister and Salam Zikam Ali al-Zubaie, a Sunni Arab, will head the Defense Ministry. He said they would serve for a week to allow for an agreement on permanent appointments.

Al-Zubaie is the Sunni nominee for deputy premier, and his political group is part of the main Sunni Arab coalition, the Iraqi Accordance Front.

Later Friday, a senior official with the Accordance Front, Adnan al-Dulaimi, said his coalition would support al-Maliki's Cabinet choices, as long as they were decided on quickly to help quell sectarian unrest.

"It doesn't matter to us that they will announce the government without the defense or interior ministries, and appoint the deputy prime minister from the Accordance Front to the defense post and the prime minister to the Interior Ministry," al-Dulaimi said.

But the final decision should be swift, he said, because "the security situation is still unstable and there are numerous acts of killing and theft."

The Cabinet list, its members or its number, has not been made public. It remained unclear what would happen if any nominee is rejected, though it was unlikely al-Maliki would risk presenting a deal lawmakers would not approve.

Al-Maliki did not say when the interior and defense ministers would be chosen but did say the posts would go to people "well known as independents, honest, not loyal to any militia or the equivalent."

Meanwhile, the second-highest ranking U.S. general in Iraq said the key to reducing violence in Iraq was to ensure that the government can revive the economy.

"I honestly believe that as this government begins work on the policies that will be required to put people to work and make use of the vast resources of Iraq that you're going to see a decrease in violence," Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, told reporters.

In Friday's worst violence, a gunbattle between insurgents and Iraqi police killed five civilians and wounded eight in Jihad, a neighborhood of western Baghdad, said police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq. He said U.S. forces helped police seal off the area after the fighting.

Also Friday:

--Insurgents fired on a minibus, killing five men and injuring six in western Baghdad. The men worked at a nearby swimming pool and it was unclear why they were targeted, said police Capt. Jemil Hussein.

--Gunmen killed a former Baath party member, Ghazi Hussein, in Hafriyah village south of Baghdad, police said.

--Omer Serri, the secretary of Ramadi's governor, was shot and killed while driving in the city in western Anbar province.

--Police found the bullet-ridden bodies of four Iraqis who had been kidnapped and tortured.