Infighting delays new Iraq government

[maddezmom]

Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD | Mon Dec 20, 2010 5:31am EST

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Political infighting and last-minute horse-trading delayed the formal announcement of a new Iraqi government on Monday, lawmakers said, as Iraq sought to end a 9-month vacuum created by an inconclusive election.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had been expected to introduce his cabinet choices before parliament on Monday, but lawmakers and a spokesman for the speaker said the day's agenda did not include the announcement. A spokesman for Maliki said he would proceed anyway, announcing a partial list.

The final deadline to approve the cabinet is at the end of the week, and the eleventh-hour squabbling and power-plays highlight the ethnic and sectarian divisions that pervade the country, 7-1/2 years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BI12P20101220