NAJAF, Iraq - The spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiites, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has lamented the absence of a new government nearly two months after the landmark elections which he strongly backed, said senior Shiite politician Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.
"The sayed (honorific) was sorry for the delay in forming the Iraqi government because this will adversely affect people's lives and called for it to be formed soon," Hakim told reporters late Sunday after meeting with Sistani, who is based in the shrine city of Najaf, south of Baghdad.
"According to the latest information that I have, there is progress in negotiations and I think all points should be finalised by Thursday, if not the unveiling of the new government will be a few days after that."
A member of the Kurdish alliance, which came in second after the Shiites in January's elections, said there was a break in talks because of the Nuruz spring holiday observed Monday by the Kurds.
"The negotiations have progressed a lot and we hope to form a government as quickly as possible," Fuad Massum told AFP.
The United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which holds 146 of the 275 seats in the new parliament and is headed by Hakim, had previously announced that it set next Thursday as a preliminarily date for the reconvening of the national assembly which was inaugurated on Wednesday.
Both the Shiites and Kurds have said they were in agreement on the principles of a coalition government and that it was now down to sharing out the leadership and cabinet posts.
They have also said that the delay is mainly due the complexity of involving Sunnis in the government despite the fact that they hold only some 20 seats in the assembly because of the boycott of elections by most Sunnis.
The Shiite-Kurdish coalition is also eager to carve out a role for outgoing prime minister Iyad Allawi, whose list came in second with 40 seats.
"We are in talks with the Iraqi list (Allawi's) because we are keen to include all Iraqis in the government, especially those with seats in parliament," said Hakim.
Allawi's camp was supposed to get back to the Shiites and Kurds on Sunday about a proposal for its participation the government.
Sources close to the UIA say that Allawi has been offered one of the two vice president posts, with the other one going to a Sunni.
The presidency is expected to go to Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani and the premiership to UIA member Ibrahim al-Jafaari.
The president along with his two deputies are part of the so called presidential council which will be formally charged with appointing the prime minister.
03/21/2005 08:08 GMT