Jaafari completes cabinet list

BAGHDAD: Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari has completed a draft list of new Cabinet ministers and is submitting it to President Jalal Talabani, his spokesman Abdul Razak al-Kadhi told journalists on Tuesday.

Al-Jaafari’s spokesman said that prime minister-designate met the president on Tuesday afternoon and if Talabani’s three-member presidential council approved the list, al-Jaafari could submit it to the 275-member National Assembly for vote on Wednesday.

Iraqi politicians have been under US pressure to form a new transitional government nearly three months after January 30 elections. Many believe the impasse has emboldened insurgents, who have launched well-coordinated attacks on US troops and Iraqi security forces in recent weeks.

Al-Kadhi gave no details of the Cabinet proposal, but lawmakers from al-Jaafari’s Shia-dominated United Iraqi Alliance, said it included 32 ministries, spread between Shia, Kurdish, Sunni and Christian factions. Three deputy premiers were also proposed, one each for Shias, Sunni and Kurds, said alliance lawmaker Ali al-Adib. However, outgoing Prime Minister’s Ilyad Allawi’s party was not included in the list, he said. Allawi’s Iraqi List controls 40 seats in the National Assembly. ap

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