Kurds dance in streets as Talabani named premier

THE Iraqi parliament yesterday picked Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as the country's new interim president yesterday.

Then move succeeded in reaching out to the nation's long-repressed Kurdish minority and bringing the country closer to its first democratically-elected government in 50 years.

Ousted members of the country's former regime, including toppled leader Saddam Hussein, watched the event on TV in their prison cells, Human Rights Minister Bakhtiyar Amin told Al-Arabiya television.

The announcement that Mr Talabani won drew applause in the National Assembly. In the north, Kurds danced in the streets upon hearing the news.

"Today Jalal Talabani made it to the seat of power, while Saddam Hussein is sitting in jail. Who would have thought," said 42-year-old Kurd Mohammed Saleh in Kirkuk.

In 1988, Saddam expelled Kurds from strategic areas in the north and gassed Kurdish towns near the Iranian border, killing tens of thousands of people.

As the parliament met, mortar rounds landed in the street near the Ministry of Agriculture and the al-Sadeer hotel, injuring at least one Iraqi civilian.

The US military said yesterday a Task Force Baghdad soldier was killed a day earlier when his patrol was hit by a bomb and attacked by insurgent gunmen.

Wednesday's election was largely a formality. Lawmakers already had agreed on Mr Talabani and two vice presidential candidates during weeks of sometimes tense negotiations held after the country's historic January 30 elections.

Shi'ite Adel Abdul-Mahdi and interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab, were chosen as Mr Talabani's two vice presidents. The three were the only candidates and received 227 votes. Thirty ballots were left blank.

Mr Talabani's election was one of several appointments designed to reflect Iraq's diverse ethnic and religious groups. In addition to al-Yawer's job, Sunni Arabs also got the speaker post with Hajim al-Hassani's appointment. But prominent Sunni Arab groups - whose members are believed to make up the backbone of the insurgency - distanced themselves from the government, saying Mr al-Yawer and Mr al-Hassani didn't represent them.

"We are not related to any process in this matter of choosing candidates for posts in this government," Association of Muslim Scholars' spokesman Muthana Harith Al-Dari told Al-Jazeera television.

Mr Talabani was expected to be sworn in to his post today, then name Shi'ite leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari prime minister, clearing the way for talks on a new constitution that must be completed by August 15.

Kurds make up 20% of the country's 26 million people; Shi'ites make up 60% and the Sunni Arabs are roughly 15-20%.

Also yesterday, the Interior Ministry said 17 insurgents were killed in clashes in eastern Diyala province two days prior. One Iraqi soldier was killed and 11 others were injured in the shootout. The US military had previously reported that two US soldiers were killed in the same area.