BAGHDAD, May 7: Iraq’s leaders reached a deal on contested cabinet posts on Saturday to break months of deadlock, agreeing on a Sunni defence minister to combat guerillas. Since Iraq’s political factions unveiled a new cabinet last week, guerillas have mounted a wave of deadly attacks, killing more than 300 people and defying government predictions that the resistance was crumbling.

Many Iraqis say the delay in forming a government after the Jan 30 elections allowed the guerillas to regroup. Even when the cabinet was sworn in on Tuesday — more than three months after the polls — several top posts were vacant.

Sources in the two strongest blocs in parliament, the Shia-dominated United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) and the powerful Kurdish coalition, said on Saturday agreement had been reached on filling the vacant ministries, including defence and oil.

They said Saadoun al Dulaimi, a Sunni, would be the new defence minister while Ibrahim Bahr al Uloum, a Shia, would run the oil ministry.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari confirmed a deal had been reached on five vacant cabinet posts and said it would be put to parliament for approval on Sunday. Talks are still going on to finalize the full line-up of deputy prime ministers.

There are only 17 Sunni lawmakers in the 275-member parliament. Shia and Kurdish leaders agreed to give important cabinet Posts, including the defence ministry, to Sunnis to try to defuse ethnic and sectarian tensions and undermine the resistance, mainly being waged by Sunnis.

Iraq’s government and the US military say they are making progress against the guerillas. The government said on Saturday that an aide to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, Al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, had been captured in a raid west of Baghdad last month. The aide, Ghassan al Rawi, was the guerillas’ leader in Rawa, western Iraq, the government said. —Reuters