Shiites offer compromise to end standoff

~ They proposed the prime minister resign in favor of someone more acceptable to Kurds and Sunnis.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Shiite politicians floated a proposal Saturday to end the standoff over a new government by having Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari step down -- but only if his replacement comes from his own party.

Negotiations have stalled over the refusal of Sunni Arab and Kurdish parties to accept al-Jaafari, the Shiite Muslim nominee to head the new government.

U.S. officials have urged the factions to form a government as quickly as possible, seeing that as a vital step toward quelling sectarian violence that threatens to push Iraq into civil war. The U.S. military cannot begin sending its 133,000 soldiers home until the government is in place.

In a bid to break the deadlock, Shiite politicians not affiliated with major parties proposed that al-Jaafari step aside in favor of another candidate from his Dawa party, several Shiite officials said.

In return, the biggest Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, would not push Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi for the post, the officials said on condition of anonymity because the talks are at a sensitive stage.

It was unclear, however, whether the proposal would be accepted before Monday's planned parliamentary session. Shiite officials have sent conflicting signals whether they would attend without a deal among all groups on the premiership and other key posts such as president and parliament speaker.

Al-Jaafari issued no public statement Saturday. On Friday, he told Britain's Channel 4 news that he would not give up the nomination because he was "the legitimate and democratic choice" of the Shiite alliance, a block of seven parties that hold 130 seats in the 275-member assembly.

However, two Shiite officials from separate parties said al-Jaafari had said privately that he would give up the nomination if asked to do so directly by the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. The officials agreed to discuss the matter only if they were not quoted by name.

Al-Sistani has privately urged Shiite leaders to resolve the dispute over the prime ministership so a new government can be formed quickly, according to the elderly cleric's aides.

However, the aides also said al-Sistani did not want to take a high-profile role in the dispute, and it appeared al-Jaafari was gambling the ayatollah would stay out of the political brawl.

The protracted bickering over al-Jaafari has sharpened differences among Iraq's sectarian and ethnically based parties at a time when the Americans, the British and many Iraqis themselves are encouraging politicians to show unity.

On Saturday, Shiite politicians suggested that if Kurds and Sunnis stand firm against al-Jaafari, the Shiites might oppose Sunni and Kurdish candidates for other leadership posts that require parliamentary approval, including president and parliament speaker.

"Any candidate for a key post presented by the blocs must be accepted by the others," Shiite official Hussain al-Shahristani told reporters. "This was done to the (Shiite) alliance candidate for prime minster's post. So the alliance has have the right to study the names of candidates presented by other blocs."

Former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite, suggested that if the stalemate could not be broken, Iraqi leaders should hold talks on forming a "national salvation government" and invite all political groups, including some not represented in parliament.

Shiite official Hadi al-Amiri dismissed that idea as "a dream" and accused Allawi, whose party won only 25 seats in the Dec. 15 election, of trying to sidestep the decision of the electorate.

As the politicians wrangled, 76 Iraqi policemen who survived a deadly ambush late Thursday near a U.S. base north of Baghdad returned home to Najaf, Brig. Gen. Abbas Maadal said. Nine officers were known dead from the firefight and more than 30 were still unaccounted for.

Policemen tried to call their missing colleagues but said their cell phones were answered by men who laughed and said, "If you want them, come and get them."

Their convoy had gone to the U.S. base at Taji north of Baghdad to pick up new vehicles. On the way home, they were ambushed near the base by insurgents who opened fire and triggered a roadside bomb.

The U.S. military announced Saturday that a Marine assigned to 1st Marine Logistics Group died the previous day in a vehicle accident in Anbar province west of Baghdad. The death raised to at least 2,372 the number of U.S. military personnel who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Also Saturday, a car bomb killed at least seven people and wounded 24 on a busy avenue. The blast occurred at lunchtime outside an east Baghdad restaurant frequented by police officers, four of whom were among the injured, Sgt. Sabah Mohsen said. All the dead were civilians, police said.

The explosion shattered windows and damaged shops over a wide area. Firefighters hosed down the debris-littered street as bystanders gawked at charred and windowless vehicles.

Elsewhere, a roadside bomb exploded Saturday near an Iraqi army patrol in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, killing three soldiers and wounding three others, the army said.

A gunfight between insurgents and Iraqi forces at a checkpoint in northwest Baghdad's Shula district killed at least two civilians and wounded four, police said. Three other people were killed in separate drive-by shootings in Baghdad, police said.

In Mosul, gunmen killed an Iraqi army officer and wounded his two sons in an attack in the east of the city, police said.

At least one civilian was killed and two others wounded in clashes between insurgents and the Iraqi army in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, police said. Several cars were set on fire.

In the southern city of Basra, four gunmen killed the director of traffic police as he drove to work, police said.

Police also found three bodies believed to have been victims of sectarian death squads in three separate areas south of Baghdad.