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SALAHADDIN, Iraq, March 14 (AFP) - Kurdish
leaders have deflated hopes for the rapid formation
of a government in Iraq as they refused to
compromise on demands for joining a coalition with
the country's powerful Shiite bloc.
As negotiations dragged on, violence claimed the
lives of 19 Iraqis and two US security contractors
over the past 48 hours, while police made the grisly
discovery of 12 rotting corpses south of Baghdad.
Six weeks after Iraq's milestone elections, Kurdish
leaders are insisting on changes to a draft
agreement setting out the terms for an alliance with
the Shiite list, the biggest winner in the new
parliament with 146 seats.
The delays mean Iraq could be without a functioning
government well past the first session of the new
275-member national assembly scheduled to open
Wednesday.
"There is progress, but the agreement still needs
work and the participation of other political groups
in the negotiations to form a government and enlarge
its base," said Fuad Massum, one of four Kurds
negotiating with the Shiites.
"The special character of this period we are
entering necessitates the participation of different
forces in the government, not just two or three."
His remarks opened the door to the possibility that
the Kurds with an aversion to the religious
character of the Shiite list were trying to force an
opening for outgoing prime minister Iyad Allawi,
whose list received only 40 seats but is still
seeking a way to retain his job.
Representatives of the Shiite list said they did not
want to speculate on the latest twist with the
Kurds.
Kurdish negotiators said they would bring their
revisions back to Baghdad for another round of talks
with the Shiite list, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA).
The plodding negotiations have triggered a wave of
criticism from Shiite religious leaders who have
demanded the government be put in place to tackle
the resistance behind daily attacks in the country.
The Kurdish negotiating team that had thrashed out a
preliminary agreement with the Shiites presented the
tentative deal Sunday to Massoud Barzani, head of
the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and members of
Jalal al-Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
But Barzani hinted at dissatisfaction with the deal
in an interview broadcast Friday, saying he wanted
agreement now on Kurdish claims to the ethnically
divided northern oil centre of Kirkuk.
"We do not agree on postponing this matter until
after the constitution, we must agree on the issue
of Kirkuk now," he told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya
television.
The UIA has sought out the Kurds, whose 77 assembly
seats have given them the second largest bloc in
parliament, in order to attain the two-thirds
majority needed to appoint a presidency council
which then nominates the prime minister.
In return, the Kurds have been seeking an iron-clad
commitment from the Shiites that they will respect
provisions regarding Kirkuk in an interim
constitution adopted under the US-led occupation
last year.
The constitution sets out steps to redress toppled
dictator Saddam Hussein's expulsion of around
100,000 Kurds from Kirkuk, and also provides for a
secular and federal Iraq.
The longer the process plays out, observers fear
insurgents will exploit the delays and erode any
momentum gained by the January 30 election.
In violence Sunday, a car bomb attack aimed at a US
patrol on the eastern side of Baghdad killed two
Iraqis including a 15-year-old boy and wounded at
least 10 according to hospital and security sources.
A US soldier was shot dead in the main northern city
of Mosul late Friday, the military announced.
Two US contract employees with the Blackwater
security firm were killed in a weekend roadside
attack that left another company employee injured,
the State Department announced.
A policeman was killed and three others wounded when
a mortar struck a checkpoint in the capital, an
interior ministry official said.
Twelve corpses, which had been rotting for a month,
were found by the Iraqi army near Latifiyah, 30
kilometres (20 miles) south of Baghdad, a security
source said.
A car bomb killed four people and left seven wounded
in ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's hometown of
Tikrit, a defense ministry official said, but gave
no further details.
An official from the party of secular Shiite
politician Ahmed Chalabi was seriously wounded by
gunmen in the Sunni rebel stronghold of Ramadi, west
of Baghdad, police said.
The US army said it killed five insurgents in
firefights around Mosul, considered one of the
strongholds of the nearly two-year-old insurgency.
Five civilians, including a woman, were injured when
a US military helicopter opened fire in response to
gun shots from rebels, the army and witnesses said.
AFP
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