Iraq Governing Council members drawn from major communities

Iraq's transitional Governing Council has decided to divide up the key ministries in the new cabinet being formed among the major communities in the country, a council member has said.

Muwaffak al-Rubai said the oil portfolio will go to a member of the majority Shiite Muslim community, the finance ministry to a Sunni Muslim and the foreign ministry to a Kurd.

The cabinet is expected to have the same relative composition as the council itself, with 13 ministries going to Shiites, five to Sunnis, five to Kurds, one for the Turkmen and one for Assyrian Christians.

Rubai said the council has a list of 150 candidates for the 25 ministerial posts, all of whom are being vetted to ensure that they have no connection with the now-banned Baath party that ruled Iraq under the former dictator Saddam Hussein.

The final makeup of the new team will not to be announced before next Wednesday, he said.

He said that the ministry staff will reflect the country's ethnic and religious composition.