New assembly meets amid tight security but no agreement made

The new Iraqi National Assembly, elected six weeks ago in an historic poll, met for the first time on Wednesday amid tight security, but the meeting ended without a deal to form a new government. Despite a heavy police and army presence in the area around the parliament and the closure of many surrounding streets, shortly before procedings got under way, four explosions rattled windows in the convention centre where parliament was sitting. But the attacks failed to disrupt the meeting. The assembly was barely a third full at the time and there have been no reports of casualties so far. Iraqis had keenly anticipated the meeting and many gathered around their TV sets to watch the occasion, which was broadcast live. Most watched with high expectations, hoping that despite ongoing insecurity, the country could take another step towards building a new Iraq. "I decided not to go to my work this morning so I could hear the speeches at the new assembly meeting. I believe that it's important for all Iraqis to participate in the rebuilding of our country," Salah Ibraheem, 43, shopkeeper in the Mansour district of the capital, told IRIN. But little progress was made as the Shi'ite alliance, which won just over half the seats in the 275-member assembly in January's poll, and the kingmaking Kurdish coalition failed to agree on the new government's composition. A tentative agreement was made that Ibrahim Jaafari of the Shi'ite Dawa party would be prime minister and the head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Jalal Talabani, would be president. But the parties remained divided on the question of Kurdish demands for oil-rich Kirkuk to be incorporated into an autonomous northern zone. The issue of a permanent constitution was also high on the agenda. Both the current Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and President Ghazi al-Yawar said that the new constitution should be as inclusive as possible.