BAGHDAD, March 16: Iraq’s new parliament met for the first time on Wednesday more than six weeks after elections, but rival blocs failed to agree on a government and militants targeted the meeting with a mortar barrage. During the two-hour inaugural ceremony, politicians pledged stability in Iraq, after windows rattled and lights flickered when mortars struck the fortified Green Zone compound. US President George Bush called the session a “hopeful moment”. Iraqi politicians described it was a step forwards for the country despite a failure to appoint a government.

“We are part of history,” said Ibrahim Bahr al Uloum, a candidate for oil minister. “This assembly has to succeed in charting the principles of a democratic, united Iraq.”

But without a government in place, the parliament cannot yet draft legislation to try to bring normality to a country plagued by relentless violence.

The Shia alliance that won 140 seats — just over half of the 275-member National Assembly — and the Kurdish coalition that came second with 75 seats, are deadlocked in negotiations over a government that have dragged on for weeks.

There is tentative agreement that Ibrahim Jaafari of the Shia Dawa party will be prime minister and Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani will be president, with a Sunni candidate probably being offered the job of parliament speaker.

But talks have stalled over Kurdish demands to expand their northern autonomous zone to include the strategic oil city of Kirkuk and over the fate of the Kurdish peshmerga militias, which Shias want absorbed in Iraq’s official security forces. The Kurds also want guarantees the country will remain secular.

Mr Jaafari said a deal would be reached soon. “Within two weeks you will see the birth of a new government,” he told reporters after the parliament meeting.

‘ARGUMENTS OF THE DEAF’: Politicians had hoped for a deal before parliament sat, but one Shia official described recent political bargaining as ‘arguments of the deaf’.

Under Iraq’s interim constitution, parliament must agree on a president and two vice presidents by a two-thirds majority. Those three will then appoint a prime minister. The assembly must also oversee the writing of a permanent constitution.

Current Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and President Ghazi al Yawar, both of whom keep their jobs until a new government is agreed, told the assembly the process must be inclusive and involve Sunni, who have little parliamentary representation after many of them stayed away from the polls.

The delay in forming a government has angered many Iraqis. Some say the deadlock is playing into the hands of elements determined to wreck the political process.

SUICIDE ATTACK: A suicide car bomber attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, on Wednesday, killing at least three Iraqi soldiers, police said.

The Al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack, which police said also wounded five soldiers and three civilians. The soldiers were taken to a US base for treatment.

“A lion from the martyrs brigade ... carried out a heroic attack on an infidel guards checkpoint in the city of Baquba ... and inflicted great death and injuries,” the group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al Zarqawi said in a statement posted on a Web site.

Guerillas trying to overthrow Iraq’s US-based government are increasingly targeting checkpoints, often with suicide attacks. —Reuters