BAGHDAD - The unveiling of Iraq's new cabinet was again delayed Wednesday amid sharp disagreements over proposed ministers as suspected insurgents shot dead a woman MP, the first such killing since the January 30 election.
Meanwhile, Romania asked the kidnappers of three Romanian journalists in Iraq for more time after they threatened to execute them at 1300 GMT if Bucharest failed to promise to withdraw its 860 soldiers from Iraq.
Gunmen shot dead MP Lamiya Abed Khaduri on her own doorstep Wednesday in east Baghdad, an interior ministry official told AFP.
"Armed men knocked at her door and when she answered, they shot her," the official said.
Earlier in the day, an Iraqi general, Jihad Luaibi, was seriously wounded and two of his guards killed in a drive-by shooting outside his Baghdad home which was later claimed by the group of Al-Qaeda frontman in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"The Organization of Al-Qaeda in the Land of Two Rivers ambushed an interior ministry general, also inspector general and in charge of defusing explosive devices and car bombs, Jihad Luaibi," said an Internet statement whose authenticity could not be verified.
MP Khaduri was elected on the Iraqi list of outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, one of 87 women in the new 275-strong parliament.
Allawi himself escaped unscathed from a suicide car bomb attack last Wednesday which left two policemen dead.
Allawi is preparing to hand over the government to Prime minister-designate Ibrahim Jaafari, but politicians have repeatedly failed to reach a compromise on a broad-based coalition cabinet.
US officials earlier this week expressed concern over the failure to name a government, three months after the elections, amid fears that further delay might play into the hands of the insurgents by discrediting the political process.
Iraqi politicians said Tuesday evening they had reached a deal, but Wednesday backtracked following disagreements between Shiite, Sunni and Kurd representatives.
"Approval has been reached on the final list of names which will be submitted to the presidential board at 4 pm (1200 GMT) and tomorrow (Thursday) will be put before parliament to be ratified," Jawad Maliki, number two in Jaafari's Dawa party, told reporters Wednesday afternoon.
"The list will be announced this evening," Haytham al-Husseini, spokesman for the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, told AFP.
Maliki explained the delay by last-minute disagreements over some appointments, chiefly who would control the powerful oil and interior ministries.
In addition, Jaafari rejected several Sunni names because of their ties to the former regime, a politician close to the negotiations said.
The elections were won by the majority Shiites and a Kurdish coalition, but both are eager to include representatives of the Sunni minority to bolster the government's credibility and promote national unity.
Sunnis, dominant under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, are under-represented in the current parliament, in part because of their boycott of the elections. They also provide the backbone to the insurgency.
In Bucharest, the families of three kidnapped journalists pleaded with the government to withdraw its forces from Iraq as demanded by their captors.
Al-Jazeera television said they had a video recording in which the kidnappers set a new ultimatum for their execution on Tuesday afternoon.
Prima TV reporter Marie-Jeanne Ion and cameraman Sorin Miscoci were seized in a Baghdad suburb on March 28 along with Romania Libera correspondent Eduard Ohanesian and their Iraqi-US guide.
The Romanian presidency said it had asked the kidnappers for more time.
"The Romanian authorities ask the group who is holding the three hostages for an extension of the ultimatum," said a statement.
Meanwhile, at least six other Iraqis, including four soldiers, were killed and several wounded in fresh violence around the country.
These included an Iraqi contractor gunned down in Tuz, 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Baghdad and an Iraqi soldier killed by a roadside bomb targeting a US convoy in Mashahda, about 30 kilometers north of Baghdad, officials said.
Another Iraqi soldier was killed in a rocket attack on Dhuluiya airport, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) north of Baghdad and a civilian was killed in a roadside bombing in Makhoul, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the capital.
In Washington, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Richard Myers admitted insurgents were still as capable as they were a year ago.
"I think their capacity stays about the same. And where they are right now is where they were almost a year ago," Myers told a news briefing Tuesday.

04/27/2005 14:00 GMT