by Sam Dagher
BAGHDAD - Deputies in Iraq's first freely-elected parliament in half a century may put political bargaining aside during Wednesday's inaugural session to choose a president, two deputies and a house speaker.
The 275-member assembly, meeting 45 days after Iraq's watershed January 30 elections, is under tremendous pressure to move the process ahead despite an impasse in talks between the winning Shiite and Kurdish blocs.
Both sides were racing down to the wire to cut a deal before Wednesday, but no outcome was in sight.
Symbolism looms large over the swearing-in ceremony of deputies which will be held in Baghdad's convention centre inside the fortified Green Zone, once the seat of Saddam Hussein's ruling Baath regime before he was toppled in April 2003.
March 16 marks the anniversary of the gassing of the Kurdish village of Halabja in 1988 when thousands perished.
It was also in March that both Kurds in the north and Shiites in the south rose against Saddam during the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait before being ruthlessly crushed by his Republican Guard.
Shiites are now in the driving seat for the first time in Iraq's history.
Their United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) holds 146 seats in the assembly tasked with drafting a permanent constitution that will be put to a referendum in October and with preparing for another round of national elections in December.
"We hope to rise to the historic occasion," Jawad al-Maliky, a senior member of the alliance whose Islamist Dawa party was once banned under Saddam.
"We are holding extensive talks today with the Kurds and the Sunnis and if we agree, the assembly will vote on the presidential council and the speaker tomorrow."
A prominent Kurdish leader was less optimistic of a breakthrough.
"It seems it may take more time to agree on a package on the formation of the government. I personally don't think by tomorrow we'll be able to finalise that deal," outgoing Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told AFP.
"The session would be the formal ceremonial opening of the new parliament ... and the discussions would continue ... beyond tomorrow."
According to Maliky, the presidency will go to a Kurd and the two deputies will be a Shiite and a Sunni Muslim Arab.
The leading contenders are Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani for the presidency and outgoing Shiite finance minister Adel Abdul Mehdi for one of the two deputy slots.
There are four favourites among the Sunni leadership for the other vice-presidency post.
They include outgoing President Ghazi al-Yawar, Industry Minister Hajem al-Hassani, tribal leader Sheikh Fawaz al-Jarba and former governor of Salahuddin province Hussein al-Juburi, Maliky said.
The speaker of parliament will be Sunni and Yawar, a tribal magnate from the north, is also a strong contender, added Maliky.
"I know that my name was among those mentioned," said Hassani, a 50-year-old Sunni Arab who hails from the northern oil city of Kirkuk and has strong ties with tribal and religious leaders.
He said if elected he would work hard to bring the community that once ruled Iraq into the national fold which may help quell the insurgency centred mostly now in Sunni areas like Mosul, Samarra and Al-Anbar province.
"I am from this Sunni fabric but I am Iraqi first," said Hassani, who holds a seat on the assembly as part of Yawar's Iraqiyoun list.
Sunnis only won some 20 seats due to a boycott by large segments of the community of January's vote.
The first-place Shiites can do nothing on their own because the presidential council requires two-thirds of votes in parliament to be approved. The council will choose a prime minister to form the next government.
The UIA has nominated Dawa chief Ibrahim al-Jafaari for the premiership.
Everything depends on the Kurds, whose alliance holds 77 seats and who have been relishing their role of kingmaker.
They have been insisting on a written agreement as a precondition for any coalition government with the Shiites and thrashing around thorny issues like the fate of their militia, revenue-sharing and Kirkuk, which they claim as their own.
Saddam settled thousands of Arabs there in the 70s.
"The Kurds are going too far, these issues must be discussed in parliament," says Sangul Chapuk, a Sunni Turkmen.
She is part of a coalition headed by Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi, which failed to win seats on the assembly but is eager to play a role in the next government.
Turkmen, who have their own grievances against the Kurds especially in Kirkuk, have won 14 seats on the assembly. Women have some 25 seats.

03/15/2005 13:46 GMT