Embattled Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari today asked the Shiite alliance to confirm his nomination for a second term, and Shiite politicians plan to meet this weekend to decide whether to replace him.

HANDWRITING experts authenticated Saddam Hussein’s signature on memos approving death sentences for 148 Shi’ites and the confiscation of farmlands during the 1980s, the judge said yesterday.

Iraq’s Parliament will convene tomorrow after a three-day delay despite Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s refusal to step aside and break the deadlock over a new government, officials said today.

Sporadic clashes broke out today between gunmen and Iraqi security forces in a Sunni Arab district of northern Baghdad as soldiers sealed off streets and manned checkpoints a day after a major gunbattle there.

THE political impasse over Iraq’s new government tightened yesterday as Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s party indicated it was standing firm for him to keep the post despite opposition from Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s party will stick by him as the Shiite nominee for a second term and will put forward the name of a new candidate only if the premier decides to step aside, a top party official said today.

THE speaker of parliament announced yesterday he was postponing a planned session of parliament “for a few days”.

SHI’ITE politicians failed yesterday to resolve the deadlock over their candidate for prime minister, which is blocking formation of a new government.

The Sunni Arab bloc in Iraq’s parliament remains opposed to a new term for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and will ask the Shiites to present new names for consideration for the top government post, a Sunni spokesman said today.

Relatives and friends of Shiite Muslims killed in a deadly mosque attack carried coffins of the dead through the streets of several Baghdad neighbourhoods today, chanting religious rites and beating their heads and chests.

Shiite leaders today decided to oppose convening parliament next week to decide the future of Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and may turn to the country’s top Shiite cleric to break the deadlock over the formation of the new government.

SADDAM HUSSEIN was cross-examined for the first time in his six-month-old trial yesterday, saying he approved death sentences against Shi’ites in the 1980s.

Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari was today quoted as refusing to abandon his bid for a second term to break the deadlock over a new government.

A car bomb exploded today in a mostly Shiite area of eastern Baghdad, killing at least 10 and wounding 28, police said.

IRAQI politicians were urged yesterday to speed up negotiations to form a new government.

Insurgents blew up a small Shiite mosque north-east of Baghdad today, while police reported the discovery of nearly 40 bodies in several neighbourhoods of the Iraqi capital. The US military reported the death of three American soldiers.

On the day of the first session of Iraq’s new parliament today, and within days of the third anniversary of the US-led invasion, the country lie under the shadow of a feared civil war and politicians report a stalemate over the next government.

Leaders of Iraq’s main political blocs began a round of marathon meetings today with the US ambassador in an attempt to reach agreement on a broad-based government.

The feared resumption of mass sectarian violence erupted in a Baghdad Shiite slum when bombers blew apart two markets, killing at least 44 people and wounding about 200.

Gunmen wearing commando uniforms of the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry stormed an Iraqi security company that relied heavily on Sunni ex-military men from the Saddam Hussein regime and abducted 50 hostages.

Iraq’s Shiite prime minister declared yesterday that he would not be blackmailed into abandoning his bid for a second term.

Iraq’s president failed in a bid to order parliament into session by next Sunday, further delaying formation of a government and raising questions about whether the political process can withstand the unrelenting violence or disintegrate into civil war.

IRAQ’S president said yesterday he would convene the new parliament for the first time on March 12, beginning a 60-day countdown during which lawmakers must elect a new head of state and sign off on a prime minister and cabinet.

Iraq’s president today said he would call the country’s new parliament into session for the first time on Sunday, starting the clock on a 60-day period during which the legislature must elect a new head of state and sign off on a prime minister and Cabinet.

HUMAN rights abuses in Iraq are as bad now as they were under Saddam Hussein, as lawlessness and sectarian violence sweep the country, the former UN human rights chief in Iraq said yesterday.

Prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari today cancelled a meeting with Iraq’s political leaders after they agreed to mount a campaign to deny him another term in a bid to jump-start stalled talks on a new national unity government.

Leaders of Sunni, Kurdish and a secular political party decided today to ask the Shiite alliance to withdraw its nomination of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari for another term, political officials said.

Bombs and gunfire killed about 60 people as another daytime curfew failed to halt violence that has claimed nearly 200 lives since the destruction of a Shiite shrine set off a wave of retribution against Sunnis and pushed Iraq toward civil war.

A car bomb exploded in a Shiite holy city and 13 members of one Shiite family were gunned down north-east of the capital today in a surge of attacks that killed at least 30 people despite heightened security aimed at curbing sectarian violence following the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine.

Republican senators in the US criticised the Bush administration today over its policies in Iraq, Iran and the Palestinian territories, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s first testimony to Congress in months exposed her to a tough grilling from some members of her own party.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt today in a line of people waiting to receive government payments, killing six other people and wounding about 30, including children.

SHI’ITE lawmakers yesterday chose Ibrahim al-Jaafari to be Iraq’s new prime minister, taking a key step in forming a government nearly two months after national elections, officials said.

Shiite lawmakers today chose Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to head the new government, selecting the incumbent by a one-vote margin over Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, Shiite officials said.

A SUICIDE car bomber targeted a busload of police recruits north of Baghdad yesterday, killing seven people, and gunmen in the capital killed five workers, police said.

Iraq’s leading Shiite religious bloc has said that it is ready to discuss Sunni Arab participation in a coalition government, while thousands of Sunni and secular Shiite demonstrators took to the streets claiming election fraud.

Iraqi and US military officials have said that an inspection of an overcrowded detention centre run by the Interior Ministry discovered 13 prisoners who required medical treatment, the victims of apparent abuse.

THE US military yesterday reported that suicide bombings fell in November to their lowest level in seven months after joint US-Iraqi operations west of the capital.

Iraqi government officials today failed to deliver the promised results of an investigation into alleged torture at an interior ministry jail in Baghdad.

Mounting political pressure to speed up the trial of Saddam Hussein threatens the independence of the Iraqi special court trying the case, international observers have warned.

IRAQ'S main Sunni Arab political party yesterday demanded an international investigation into allegations that security forces illegally detained and tortured suspected insurgents at secret jails in Baghdad.

The discovery of 173 mostly Sunni Arab detainees in an Iraqi Interior Ministry basement lockup – malnourished and showing signs of torture – appeared to validate some of the long-standing grievances and has raised questions about the Shiite-led government’s commitment to democracy and human rights.

US and Iraqi forces fighting insurgents near the Syrian border ran into fierce resistance yesterday with troops encountering dozens of explosive booby traps and killing at least 30 insurgents, the military said.

Iraq’s prime minister disclosed today that more than 170 malnourished Iraqi detainees were found at an Interior Ministry detention centre and that some appeared to have been tortured.

More than 150 malnourished Iraqi detainees found at an Interior Ministry detention centre appeared to have been tortured, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said today.