ANKARA - The announcement of the new Iraqi government, expected Thursday, will be further delayed, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told Turkey's CNN-Turk channel in an interview.
Talabani said negotiations on the make-up of the government were continuing, stressing the need for a consensus on the right of all communities in Iraq to be represented in the administration.
"I think the government will not be announced today, because there are still some differences," Talabani told CNN-Turk, with a voice-over translation into Turkish.
"The negotiations are continuing," he said. "We want to see the Sunni Arabs in the cabinet... We want to see a national unity government."
Talabani explained that talks were continuing between the future government partners on the allocation of some cabinet posts.
The Iraqi leader had said Wednesday that Prime minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari would finally unveil the cabinet line-up on Thursday, more than 11 weeks after general elections in January.
04/21/2005 15:07 GMT