BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP):
EFFORTS TO form a unity government suffered a new setback yesterday as Iraqi leaders postponed a Parliament session after failing to agree on a prime minister. Bombs targeted Shiites near a mosque and on a bus as attacks nationwide killed at least 35 people.
Four more Marines were reported killed in fighting west of Baghdad as the U.S. death toll for this month rose to 47 - compared with 31 for all of March.
U.S. officials believe the best way to stem the violence is for the Iraqis to establish a government comprising Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, paving the way for the United States to start withdrawing its 133,000 troops.
But progress has stalled over Sunni and Kurdish opposition to the Shiite choice of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to head the new government. With al-Jaafari refusing to step aside, acting Speaker Adnan Pachachi called a Parliament session for today Monday, hoping the full legislature could agree on a new leadership after the politicians failed.
On the eve of the session, Pachachi announced a delay of "a few days" to give the religiously and ethnically-based parties more time to agree on the new prime minister, president and five other top posts that require parliamentary approval.
Before the announcement, Shiite official Hussain al-Shahristani told Sunni and Kurdish leaders that his bloc, which controls 130 of the 275 Parliament seats, would decide what to do about al-Jaafari "within the coming two days," Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said.
