SHOUTING from their seats, lawmakers failed to agree on a parliament speaker during their second-ever National Assembly meeting yesterday, as officials continued to haggle over the role of Sunni Arabs in the new government, a role officials hope will quell the Sunni-led insurgency.

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.

Mariam Fam, Baghdad

Iraq’s interim president said that tens of thousands of people may have been unable to vote in the country’s historic weekend election because some polling places – including those in Sunni Arab areas – ran out of ballots.

It would be “complete nonsense” to ask US and other foreign troops to leave Iraq now but some of the 170,000 soldiers could be leaving by the end of the year, the nation’s interim president said today.

Iraq’s president said today that many Iraqis would stay away from the polls in his country’s historic election because of security fears and warned the vote will fail if Sunnis don’t participate.

US troops have staged a series of raids in northern and central Iraq, arresting dozens, as insurgents stepped up their attacks two weeks ahead of national elections, ambushing a car carrying a female candidate and killing 24 people in other assaults.

A SUICIDE car bomber linked to al-Qaida killed 13 people in Baghdad yesterday as seven US Marines were also killed on the first anniversary of the capture of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

IN A bold attack yesterday Islamic militants threw explosives at the gate of the heavily guarded US consulate in Jiddah, then forced their way into the building and held civilians at gunpoint during which eight people were killed in the three-hour gun battle.

President George Bush, on a day of new violence in the Middle East, expressed determination to see Iraq hold elections on January 30 and said they would show that terrorists cannot stop the march of democracy.

Gunmen stormed the compound of a Saudi company in a fashionable Baghdad neighbourhood, seizing an American, a Nepalese and four Iraqis after a gun battle in which a guard and one of the attackers were killed.

The deadly showdown between US troops and Iraqi militants in Najaf dominated Iraq’s national conference, with tribal and religious leaders deciding to send 60 delegates to the holy city to persuade a radical Shiite cleric to call off his fighters.

US secretary of state Colin Powell said the United States would speed delivery to Iraq of billions of dollars in reconstruction aid, as Nato countries agreed to send a 40-member team as soon as possible to begin training Iraqi security forces.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell made an unannounced trip to Baghdad today following talks with Saudi officials on a proposal to form a Muslim force to help stamp out the deadly insurgency in Iraq.

Iraqi interim President Ghazi al-Yawer threatened today to use a “very sharp sword” to fight insurgents and anyone else threatening the security of the country.

THE United States transferred sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government two days early yesterday in a surprise move that apparently caught insurgents off guard, averting a feared campaign of attacks to sabotage the move toward self-rule.

Iraq’s interim prime minister warned today that the “forces of terror” would be crushed as his new government took the oath of office to assume power only hours after US authorities handed over sovereignty.

Iraqi authorities hope to file criminal charges against Saddam Hussein and others in the former regime before the June 30 transfer of sovereignty to the new government, a senior official said today.

THE Anglo-American resolution defining the new Iraqi government’s powers was finally heading for the UN Security Council’s approval late last night.