Iraq PM hopes to form government in a week

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki said on Thursday he hoped to form a government within a week after meeting Washington's top defense and foreign affairs officials and two of Iraq's most powerful clerics.

As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumseld flew out, Maliki pledged to fill the key posts of interior and defense ministers with non-sectarian appointees.

Maliki has 30 days from last Saturday to present his cabinet to parliament for approval but has said he wants to move faster on creating a grand coalition of majority Shi'ite Muslims, Sunni Arabs and Kurds to combat the violence wracking the country.

"The dialogue is still ongoing with the different parties from which the government will be formed, including on the important ministries," Maliki told reporters after meeting Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the holy southern city of Najaf.

"God willing, it will be settled next week."

Maliki also met firebrand Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, an influential political leader who condemned the U.S. visit.

"It is a shocking intervention in Iraqi affairs," he told a joint news conference with Maliki, adding the new government's first duty was to ensure Iraq's stability and independence, including a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060427/ts_nm/iraq_dc

Best of luck to all in Iraq! This has been a long time coming.:thumbsup:

New Government getting put into place which means our troops are that much closer to coming home and this only gets three hits??? Hmmmmmm...just like TV, good news isn't paid that much attention to I guess.:cool:

3 hit is sad

what is sadder
is that we put them through more pain
than necessary in "liberating" them

best of luck indeed to those in
iraq.

So if this is good news..which we need..then when will the effects from this start happening? Oh...so thats why them flying out was so secret..He said God willing it will be settled by next week..nice.

P4B,
It is cause its right, and from a reliable source. They didnt have any way to pick it apart.

I wish them the best of luck, they will need it.