A deputy who attended the Shia alliance's Tuesday meeting said that the cabinet could be announced within the next 24 hours but added that the appointments of the heads of the coveted security posts would be left for later.
"Within the next 24 hours the composition of the government may be announced without naming the defense and interior ministry posts," Shia deputy Hassan Al Sunaid said, following a meeting attended by prime minister designate Nuri Al Maliki.
"A number of candidates have been presented to the prime minister [designate] for these posts, but he has not yet made his choice," Sunaid said.
The urgency of the formation of new government, which sectarian squabbles have blocked for the past five months, was underscored by a new wave of violence that swept Iraq on Tuesday.
At least 22 Iraqis were killed, including 14 people who lost their lives when a car bomb ripped through a packed market in Baghdad's Shaab district on Tuesday, an Iraqi interior ministry source said.
Several women and children were among the dead in the attack, which targeted a mixed Sunni-Shia area of the capital and also left 33 wounded.
Gunmen opened fire on the crowd just before the bombing and fled, leaving behind a car that then exploded.
Meanwhile, six civilians were shot dead when gunmen attacked a checkpoint in Baghdad. And a US soldier was killed by a bomb in an attack in the south of the capital.
The US military on Tuesday also said that two of its soldiers were killed in a similar incident in Balad, north of the capital, the previous day.
The sectarian strife that has left thousands dead since the bombing of a Shia shrine in February continued with the discovery of four corpses, killed execution-style, in Baghdad.
Observers have said that strong, independent leaders in the security ministries are needed to stem the violence and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Monday said that he would not support a cabinet without the security posts.
"The presidency does not wish to see the presentation of an incomplete government lacking the defense and interior posts," he told reporters.
In a sign that the cabinet still had some way to go before completion, the Shia alliance said that it was not yet clear what role secular Sunni Ayad Allawi's party and the Shia Fadhila party would play.
Their participation "is still undecided", the Shia alliance said in a statement, adding, however, that "the government is near completion".
Sunaid said that the two favorites for the interior ministry post are independent Shias Ahmed Chalabi, Washington's former protégé and Qassem Daoud, an ex-national security minister.
"The three names most often cited for the defense ministry post are Hashem Al Hasni, the former parliament speaker [from former prime minister Ayad Allawi's secular party], and the former minister of industry, Osama Al Najafi and ex-defense minister Saadun Al Dulaimi, all Sunnis," Sunaid said.
The new cabinet will be made up of over 30 ministries, the Shia deputy said, providing the following rough breakdown of the cabinet posts:
- The Shia alliance is expected to take 17 ministries, including the interior, oil and finance ministries.
- The Kurdish coalition is to get control of five ministries, including the foreign affairs and industry portfolios.
- Allawi's secular list is expected to take five ministries, including justice and defense.
- The Sunni Concord front is expected to take four ministries, including planning and higher education, while the Sunni faction of Salah Motlaq will take three ministries.
- Christians, Turkmen and Shia Kurds are expected to gain control of one ministry each.
© 2006 Agence France-Presse
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