BAGHDAD - The new Iraqi parliament's second session ended in chaos Tuesday as deputies failed to select a new speaker and jeered one another, prompting warnings the body now risks losing credibility.
With Iraq's government in limbo two months after the January 30 election, insurgents seized on the deadlock to cause mayhem as a car bomb exploded in the ethnically divided city of Kirkuk, killing one person and wounding 17.
Independent experts warned that the body, which was meeting just for the second time, risked frittering away its legitimacy and losing the momentum it gained in the watershed elections that saw millions come out to vote.
The parliament session had been due to start at 11:00 am (0800 GMT) but was held up for almost three hours as the winning Shiite and Kurdish blocs waited for the Sunni minority to decide on a candidate for parliament speaker.
Within minutes of opening, acting speaker Sheikh Dhari al-Fayad stunned the audience of political veterans, asking the 275-member assembly to adjourn because of the quarrel over the choice of his successor, a largely symbolic post.
"The principal lists are asking to delay the vote for another time so the Sunnis can finish talks among themselves to choose a nominee," he said.
A raucous atmosphere ensued as the 87-year-old acting speaker ejected the press from the session and the MPs started ranting over the impasse.
"We must open up this process to the Iraqi people...," an angry veiled woman shouted.
A member of outgoing prime minister Iyad Allawi's list stood up and delivered a veiled rebuke to the Sunnis.
"The winning lists are not the ones delaying the session," said Sayed Hussein al-Sadr, a black-turbaned cleric.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who had been negotiating to join the government, bolted the circus-like meeting, but his office denied he was angry, claiming he had left for an appointment.
Fayad said he hoped the impasse would be solved by Sunday, and his son and secretary later confirmed the parliament would meet that day.
Underscoring the violence that the new government must confront when it takes office, two mortar rounds shook the Green Zone where the parliament is based just minutes before the session convened.
Two months after the epic election, the country's ethnic and religious groups have stumbled in forming a government, quarreling over important posts such as the oil ministry and contentious issues like Islam's role in politics.
The Shiites and Kurds had agreed to award the post of speaker to one of around 20 Sunni Arabs in parliament in a bid to reach out to the embittered community that largely boycotted the election.
The Shiites were backing United Iraqi Alliance member Sheikh Fawaz al-Jarba, a Sunni tribal leader from the powerful Shammar tribal confederation, which straddles the sectarian divide.
A Shiite negotiator said the Kurds wanted outgoing Sunni Arab industry minister Hajem al-Hassani, who won a seat in parliament as part of the list of President Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, also a Sunni.
But Hassani told reporters he did not want the job and spoke bluntly about the discord among Iraq's religious and ethnic groups after Tuesday's stormy session.
"There was heated debate and many insisted that the matter be decided today, but as you know the country is going through a very dangerous period that requires consensus-building," Hassani told reporters.
Minutes before the meeting, UIA deputy Abbas al-Bayati warned: "There is a crisis right now to convince Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar to be president of the national assembly."
Yawar's office said Monday that the tribal magnate has been resisting persistent pressure to assume the symbolic post.
"We're getting deeper into a vicious circle instead of out of it," warned anaylst Joost Hilterman from the Brussels-based International Crisis Group think tank.
On the ground, a car bomb exploded in the ethnically-divided city of Kirkuk as a convoy passed carrying the city's water chief, Abdulqader Zanganah, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, in the second assassination attempt against a KDP official in three days.
Several buildings in the predominantly Kurdish neighbourhood of Rahimawa were also damaged by the blast, said the area's police chief, Colonel Adel Zeinalbeddin.
He said preliminary inquiries suggested that a bomb-rigged vehicle parked on a sidestreet had been detonated by remote control.
One civilian was killed and 17 others wound, among them eight of Zanganah's bodyguards, hospital officials said. Zanganah's condition was not immediately known.
KDP leader Massoud Barzani has been one of the most outspoken champions of Kurdish demands for Kirkuk to be incorporated in their autonomous region in northern Iraq, despite the opposition of the city's Turkmen minority and Arabs settled in the city under Saddam Hussein's regime.
Eight more people, including three soldiers, were killed in attacks around Iraq, security sources said.
Meanwhile, the Romanian foreign ministry announced that three journalists working for private television station Prima TV were feared missing in Iraq.

03/29/2005 14:33 GMT