BAGHDAD - The Shiite and Kurdish frontrunners in Iraq's January elections announced Thursday they had agreed on the terms of the first elected goverment since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
The two sides have drafted a three-page principle of understanding that will formalise their alliance and will be signed by Sunday after a final review, the Shiite side said.
For their part, the Kurds said the sides had found common ground and expected to sign the deal within two or three days, meeting the ethnic minority's key demand for a written agreement before joining any government.
"A draft agreement had been reached with the (Shiite) United Iraqi Alliance about a number of important core issues," sai Dr. Fuad Massum, a senior Kurdish leader involved in the talks.
The news came six weeks after Iraq's historic election, with the country's 275-seat parliament due to convene next Wednesday.
"The two sides have drafted their principle of understanding. Both sides agree. Most likely it will be signed Sunday," said Adnan Ali, an aide to Ibrahim Jaafari, the Shiite frontrunner for post of prime minister.
The document reaffirms Iraq's commitment to the transitional law (TAL), passed under the US occupation, that will govern Iraq until a permanent constitution is completed and ratified by the end of 2005.
"We all agree that the TAL is the constitution for this government," Ali said, adding it would govern the handling of the disputed northern oil city of Kirkuk.
The document also pledges all Iraqi ministers to work for Iraq's national interest and commits the government to restoring security, fighting unemployment and improving basic services, he said.
He said the sides were in accord that Jaafari would be prime minister and Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani would be president.
Ali said the Shiites were committed to the TAL's provisions on Kirkuk, perhaps the most important issue of all for the Kurds.
"The TAL in article 58 says what to do on Kirkuk."
Indicating the Kurds' happiness on the current talks, Kurdish negotiator Fuad Kamel said his long-oppressed ethnic group had accepted the commitment from the Shiites on Kirkuk.
"Concerning Kirkuk, we have decided to apply the terms of the TAL," he said. The Kurds, whose 77 seats give them the second-largest share in the new 275-member national assembly, have insisted on a written pledge from the UIA, which swept the polls with 146 seats.
The Kurds had wanted guarantees that more steps would be taken on Kirkuk in line with the TAL's article 58.
The article pledges that the coming government will redress the mass expulsion of Kurds from Kirkuk under Saddam Hussein who wanted the region's lucrative oil reserves under Arab control.
It also calls for the government to examine Saddam's redrawing of provinces in the name of Arabisation, the jailed dictator's policy of ridding ethnic minorities like the Kurds from strategic areas.
Senior members of Jaafari's Dawa party had previously balked over Kurdish insistence on a formal pact before they joined the next government.
When the TAL was passed last year, revered Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani made clear his displeasure with the document, which granted Kurds greater freedom in the north.
The Shiite majority's antipathy for the TAL had raised fears in the Kurdish community, long oppressed under the old regime, that their hard-won autonomy would be eroded in the post-Saddam Iraq.
03/10/2005 18:56 GMT