BAGHDAD, April 28: Iraqi lawmakers on Thursday approved Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari’s cabinet after weeks of a damaging deadlock. The cabinet consists of Ibrahim Jaafari, four deputy premiers representing each of the main ethnic and religious communities, and 32 ministers. It will run the country until elections planned for December. Six women are in the cabinet.

Two of the deputy premiers have yet to be named, while five portfolios will be filled on a temporary basis until an agreement is reached.

The most significant ministries yet to be attributed are defence, which is destined for a Sunni politician but will temporarily be held by Mr Jaafari, and oil, which Ahmed Chalabi will fill in the meantime.

Sunni leaders expressed their disappointment over the partial line-up and warned a fresh political crisis loomed if the demands of their community were not met.

“Today, we face the huge task of trying to reach the stage of elections,” Mr Jaafari said, referring to new legislative polls scheduled for December.

But Vice President Ghazi al Yawar, a Sunni tribal leader, expressed frustration that some ministries were left vacant and warned that Sunni ministers could step down if his community did not obtain more posts.

“It’s simple and easy, if they (Shias) fail to satisfy the Sunnis .... then I think the Sunnis might simply withdraw their candidates” from the government, he told reporters.

At the same time, Abdel Aziz Hakim, the Shia leader who heads the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), urged the new government to crack down on guerillas.

“We want the government to commit to strongly fighting terrorism and to getting rid of all Saddamist criminals,” he told parliament.

Political infighting has dogged the negotiations to form a government since the Jan 30 elections despite the threat of violence.

The Sunnis were granted a higher proportion of portfolios in a bid to correct the balance of power following dismal Sunni participation in the January elections, analysts said.

Handing the defence portfolio to a Sunni is expected to ease fears of a witch-hunt against the community.

Observers also hope this will undermine the resistance, which had appeared to take advantage of the ongoing political haggling to step up its attacks. On Thursday, those attacks continued.

A major general who worked as an intelligence adviser in the interior ministry and a senior police officer were shot dead in Baghdad.

Six Iraqi soldiers and five civilians were also killed in a string of attacks in the restive areas north of Baghdad, including a car bomb in Saddam’s home town of Tacit, which also wounded three US soldiers.

Four civilians were killed and 20 others wounded in a rocket attack in the town of Moseyed, south of Baghdad, police and medical sources said. — AFP

Our Correspondent in New York adds: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s special envoy to Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, on Thursday welcomed the formation of a new government in Iraq.

“The UN encourages all Iraqis to come together and to make the success of Iraq’s historic transition to a united and prosperous constitutional democracy their highest priority,” Mr Qazi said.

Mr Qazi will represent the United Nations at a two-day meeting this week in Istanbul of foreign ministers from Iraq’s neighbours to discuss the developments following the January elections.