BAGHDAD - Iraqi prime minister-designate Ibrahim Jaafari announced Wednesday he had formed a cabinet more than 12 weeks after watershed elections, as suspected insurgents shot dead a woman MP in the first such killing since the vote.
The proposed cabinet "will be submitted to the presidential council, which will in turn submit it to parliament" for approval, Jaafari told a news briefing broadcast by state television.
But he failed to name those on the list, saying only they included "at least seven women" and that the Sunni minority would get the defence portfolio.
The Shiite-based United Iraqi Alliance and the Kurdish coalition which won the landmark January 30 elections have been keen to include representatives of the Sunni minority to broaden the appeal and credibility of the transitional government which is to remain in place until the end of the year.
Sunnis, dominant under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, are currently under-represented in parliament, partly because of their boycott of the elections. They provide the backbone to the insurgency that continues to claim lives almost daily.
Jaafari`s announcement came after US officials expressed concern over the failure to name a government amid fears that further delay might play into the hands of the insurgents by discrediting the political process.
In the first killing of an MP since January`s vote, gunmen shot dead MP Lamiya Abed Khaduri on her own doorstep 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.
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.
Disagreements between Shiite, Sunni and Kurd representatives in parliament had prevented Allawi handing over power to Jaafari, but Wednesday`s annoucement that a cabinet had been formed breathed new life into the political process.
"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 ahead of the announcement.
Maliki explained the delay by last-minute disagreements over some appointments, chiefly who would control the powerful oil and interior ministries.
Jaafari had rejected several Sunni names because of their ties to the former regime, a politician close to the negotiations said.
Meanwhile, a deadline set by kidnappers threatening to execute three Romanian journalists in Iraq, expired Wednesday afternoon without word from the hostage-takers hours after Bucharest appealed for more time.
"The Romanian authorities asks the group who is holding the three hostages for an extension of the ultimatum," the presidency said in a statement following an emergency meeting of the country`s supreme defence council.
The kidnappers had given Bucharest until 1300 GMT Wednesday to announce the withdrawal of its 860 troops from Iraq to save the journalists` lives, according to a report by the Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera.
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.
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 Makhul, 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 said.

04/27/2005 15:02 GMT