BAGHDAD - The divided leadership of Iraq's Sunni Arabs, who largely shunned January's elections, proposed three candidates for vice president one day ahead of a parliament meeting to choose a presidency council that may bring the country one step closer to having a new government.
Representatives of the so-called National Front, a loose affiliation of Sunni political, civic and religious figures, met for nearly six hours at the Baghdad headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic party, which boycotted the elections but is seeking to maintain its influence through backdoor talks.
As Front members broke for afternoon prayers, they spoke of heated disagreements during the meeting that was off limits to media.
"That's it, the dialogue committee will tell them that we nominate three people: Adnan al-Pachachi, Adnan al-Janabi and (Ghazi) al-Yawar," Sheikh Abdul Naser al-Janabi, a long-bearded Sunni cleric proclaimed to two of his colleagues as he came out.
Another senior cleric said it was up to the prospective Shiite and Kurdish coalition partners to choose among the names but grumbled that the Sunni front's desires were trounced when their nominee for the parliament speakership, Mishaan al-Juburi, was dropped Sunday in favour of last minute compromise choice Hajem al-Hassani.
"We are wondering whether we should even bother," said Sheikh Rafi al-Ani.
The presidency council, made up of a president and two deputies, must be approved by a two-thirds majority, according to interim laws passed under the US occupation.
The council formally appoints a prime minister and a cabinet and has veto power over legislative decisions.
Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani is favored for the presidency and outgoing finance minister Adel Abdul Mehdi, a Shiite, is likely to get the other vice presidency.
Shiite MP Saad Jawad, a member of the dominant United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), hinted that outgoing president Yawar, who is also favored by the Kurds, may end up the best consensus choice.
"There is an agreement with the Kurds," he said, adding: "Our first choice is Mr Yawar."
Yawar, veteran politician Adnan Pachachi, heir to Iraq's deposed monarchy Sherif Ali bin Hussein have all announced their interest in the vice presidency.
That job, in addition to the speakership and four to six cabinet posts, has been reserved by the Shiites and Kurds for a Sunni Arab as a way to ensure their participation in the political process despite the boycott.
Contender Janabi, another Sunni, is state minister in the outgoing government of Iyad Allawi and a member of his Iraqiyah list which won 40 of 275 parliament seats.
Only Janabi and Yawar, who leads another list, hold seats in parliament. Both Sherif Ali and Pachachi ran but failed to win seats.
It was unclear how popular a choice Janabi is, but the second-place Kurds have been eager to bring Allawi into the fold to temper the Islamist current in the UIA, which holds 146 seats.
Janabi could not be reached for comment but a member of his list, Sheikh Hussein al-Shalaan, said it was important to reach consensus on the Sunni choice beforehand.
"These are exceptional times and Iraq is in a very precarious and unstable condition, so the last thing we need is to bring our divisions and rifts into the open," said Shalaan.
No single bloc can muster the two-thirds majority needed to push through a government on its own, hence the deadlock more than two months since the landmark elections.
The task has further been complicated by a desire to build consensus and bring in Sunni Arabs who have only 16 seats in the assembly.
Highlighting the deep divisions in a community still reeling from the loss of power and privilege they enjoyed under Saddam Hussein, many of those attending Tuesday's meeting described an unruly and acrimonious atmosphere among competing factions, each claiming to be the true Sunni representative.
Of the candidates only Pachachi was at the meeting and Sherif Ali sent the spokesman of his Constitutional Monarchy Movement Banayan al-Jarba.
"The whole thing was a waste of time," said Jarba.
04/05/2005 16:58 GMT