Iraq parliament agrees key positions after deal

Iraq's parliament approved key leadership positions today in the first step towards forming a new government, after a breakthrough deal that returns Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to office.

Al-Maliki and his top rival Ayad Allawi, who had hoped to take the prime minister's post at the top of a Sunni-backed coalition, sat next to each other in the chamber in an apparent sign of unity after an eight-month political fight over the formation of the government.

The deal reached late yesterday ends the deadlock, but raises concerns that Sunnis disillusioned with the political process could return to the insurgency, fuelling new violence as the US prepares to remove the last of its troops by the end of next year.

The deal is potentially a setback for the US, which had been pushing for a greater Sunni say in power, and a boost for regional rival Iran.

The Sunni minority had put great hopes in the March elections and succeeded in lifting their bloc to a narrow victory, only to be outmanoeuvred by Iranian-allied Shiites who preserved their domination of the new government.

A parliament vote on the government could still take several weeks, as the factions work out the details of who gets what posts. But the session today paved the way with the first formal steps, starting with the naming of a speaker.

Under the agreement, the post went to a figure from Allawi's Iraqiya bloc - Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni hard-liner who holds staunch support among his community in northern Iraq but is widely hated by Kurds.

His power and personality may be able to bring more authority to what has been a lackluster position in the past.

MPs were then electing two deputy speakers - a Kurd and a Shiite - and possibly would elect the president later tonight.

Sunnis appeared to be grudging junior partners in what could be a fragile government.

"I don't think we got what we wanted. We are the biggest bloc, and we won the election," said Jaber al-Jaberi, an Iraqiya MP from the Sunni stronghold Ramadi. "We earned the right to form the government. However, there were powerful forces ... and we compromised."

He warned that Iraqiya could withdraw its support if al-Maliki does not follow through with his promises. "We can always change our minds. We have 91 seats in the parliament."

Allawi's Sunni-backed Iraqiya coalition won the most seats in the March 7 parliament elections, but not a majority.

That opened the door for al-Maliki, whose State of Law party came in second, to cobble together alliances with religious Shiite parties, gathering enough seats to force Allawi to make a deal, thwarting his bids for both the prime minister job and the presidency.

Instead, Allawi will lead a newly created council to oversee issues of security and foreign policy.

But the council's powers remain vague: Al-Maliki is unlikely to give up the reins over security issues, and one of his key Shiite partners - the staunchly anti-American Sadrist movement - also appears to be angling for a hand as well.