There had been hope that Prime Minister-designate Nouri al-Maliki would fill at least some Cabinet posts when parliament convened yesterday in Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone, perhaps even taking on for himself contentious roles such as the interior and defense ministries.
Maliki's mandate to form a Cabinet expires May 22. Should he fail to do so, President Jalal Talabani would have 15 days to name a new nominee to try to form a Cabinet.
Lawmakers have struggled since Dec. 15 parliamentary elections to put together a national unity government, which many Iraqis and the US government hope will lessen sectarian tensions and undermine support for the insurgency.
The negotiations have bogged down in squabbles over the allocation of key Cabinet jobs.
As the 275-member parliament convened, a party loyal to firebrand Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatened to propose its own Cabinet list if other groups did not scale back their demands for roles in the new government.
Legislator Bahaa al-Araji of the United Iraqi Alliance denounced what he called US meddling in the talks and set a deadline of two days to settle the matter.
But the Shi'ite bloc has only 130 parliament members, which isn't enough votes to seat a Cabinet.
A coalition of three Sunni Arab parties holding 44 seats warned that it would withdraw from the political process if it did not get at least one key post such as the Defense Ministry.
That threat was made several days after Shi'ite party with 15 lawmakers pulled out of the Cabinet talks because it was not given the Oil Ministry.
The surge in violence came one day before the resumption of Saddam Hussein's trial after a three-week break. The deposed leader and seven codefendants are on trial for the killings of 148 people from Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt in the town against Hussein.
The US command said a roadside bomb just after dark yesterday killed two US soldiers in east Baghdad. The military gave no other details on the deaths. At least 2,439 US military personnel have died since the Iraq war began in 2003, according to a count by the Associated Press.
Late Saturday, a roadside bomb killed two British soldiers and wounded one as they patrolled in an armored vehicle near the southern city of Basra, Britain's Ministry of Defense said.
Baghdad's deadliest attack yesterday involved the twin suicide car bombs that exploded near a main checkpoint on a four-lane road leading to Baghdad's international airport. The blasts killed at least 14 Iraqis and wounded six.
