Sunni Arab participation in the Iraqi elections could have been even higher if there had there been more polling centres in key Sunni areas, a head of the largest Sunni Arab slate said today.

Hours before the second-ever Iraq National Assembly session, politicians have yet to pick a parliament speaker, with wrangling over bringing in Sunni Arabs - a step seen as key to quelling the Sunni-led insurgency – prolonging negotiations to form a new government.

Insurgents gunned down a neighbourhood police chief and set off a suicide bomb near a patrol guarding a holy shrine, part of a series of attacks today targeting Iraqi security forces and leaving at least eight people dead, including four police officers.