Shiite spiritual leader calls on politicians to stop bickering

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiite majority called on bickering politicians Saturday to set aside differences and form a government more than a month after landmark elections.

Members of the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance, the big winner in the Jan. 30 elections, met in central Baghdad and agreed to try to form a government and convene the 275-member National Assembly "no later than March 15," deputy Mohammed Bahr al-Ulloum said.

The alliance -- which has the backing of Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani -- already has missed two previous target dates, and the decision to set a new deadline came after the elderly cleric demanded that its members stop bickering.

The alliance gained 140 seats in the assembly during the election but is hoping to get the backing from the 75 seats held by Kurdish political parties so it can muster the required two-thirds majority to ensure control of top posts in the new government.

Another deputy, Fattah al-Sheik, said pressure would be put on interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and the Kurds so a cabinet could be ready by that date.

Allawi's party finished third with 40 seats in the assembly. He has been trying to build his own coalition in an effort to keep his job.

Sheik Fawaz al-Jarba, one of the few Sunni Arabs in the alliance, said after meeting al-Sistani in Najaf that the cleric urged the group "to unite and to form the new government as soon as possible and not to delay this issue any longer, and that the interests of Iraq and Iraqis should be their first priority."

The alliance wants to name Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the leader of the conservative Islamic Dawa Party and one of the country's two current interim vice presidents, to the prime minister's post.

"Al-Sistani demanded that we put aside minor matters and that we should be united. I am not comfortable with the delay in holding the assembly," said Mudhar Shawkat, a senior official in Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress.

Shawkat said failure to convene the assembly "represents an insult to Iraqi voters."

Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two parties in the Kurdish coalition, has long been the Kurds' choice for president.

Abbas Hassan Mousa Al-Bayati, head of the alliance's Turkomen bloc, said a parliament speaker would be named on the day the National Assembly convened.

"It seems that the general opinion is leaning toward the parliament speaker being a Sunni Arab and the president being Mr. Talabani," al-Bayati said.

A Sunni Arab speaker would go far toward appeasing the minority, which is believed to make up the core of the insurgency and, like the Kurds, makes up 15-20 percent of Iraq's estimated 26 million people. But unlike the Kurds, Sunni Arabs largely stayed away from the election to protest the U.S. presence in the country.

Al-Bayati said the candidates would include interim President Ghazi al-Yawer and interim Minister of Industry Hajim al-Hassani.

The main sticking point in forming a government has been the alliance's inability to broker a deal with the Kurds.

Kurdish leaders have demanded constitutional guarantees for their northern regions, including self-rule and reversal of what they call the "Arabization" of areas including oil-rich Kirkuk. Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein relocated Iraqi Arabs to the region in a bid to secure the oil fields there.

"Kurdish demands are negotiable. We can meet them 100 percent if the demands do not affect others, such Arabs and Turkomen. If this is not achievable, then we should look for compromise," said Redha Jawad Taqi, a spokesman for the main Shiite political group, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Adnan Mufti, who heads the PUK office in Irbil, said talks between Kurdish officials and the head of the alliance, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, were "positive" and the Kurds were "optimistic."

Sgrena left Baghdad in an Italian government plane and was met at Rome airport by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. She had been abducted in Baghdad on Feb. 4.

The circumstances of Sgrena's release from captivity were unclear. Soon after she was freed, a U.S. armored vehicle opened fire on the car carrying her to the airport on Friday. Intelligence officer Nicola Calipari likely died trying to protect her, she said.

Berlusconi, an ally of the United States who has kept Italian troops in Iraq despite public opposition at home, has demanded an explanation from the United States, and President Bush assured him the shooting would be investigated.

In Baghdad, U.S. Col. Bob Potter said coalition forces were "aggressively investigating the incident."

About 200 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq in the past year, and more than 30 of the hostages were killed.

In other violence Saturday, gunmen in two vehicles in Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, killed an Iraqi army officer, said Capt. Akram al-Zubaie.

A Turkish driver and an Iraqi Kurdish official also were killed in two separate attacks in the northern city of Mosul, witnesses said.

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Associated Press reporter Qasim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.