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Al-Jazeera airs tape of 3 hostages in Iraq
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-07 19:05

The Shiite bloc closed ranks and Abdul-Mahdi declined to sign, at least for now. In an emergency meeting with Talabani on Monday, seven Shiite leaders rejected the president's demand for them to abandon al-Jaafari's nomination.

It remained unclear when parliament might convene, despite the constitutional directive that set Sunday as the deadline. Nor was it clear how the disagreement over al-Jaafari might be settled.

The president first issued the challenge Wednesday in concert with Sunni Arab and some secular politicians.

"We want a prime minister who can gather all the political blocs around him, so that the government would be one of national unity," Talabani told reporters in Baghdad around midday Monday.

Leaders of all Iraq's major political factions scheduled a meeting Tuesday evening in an attempt to untangle the religious and sectarian differences behind the crisis, deeply compounded by continuing violence.

The attacks underscore the dangerous leadership vacuum and fresh political infighting that have torn apart many tenuous political bonds among the country's many religious and ethnic factions.

There also were increasing signs of a split in the Shiite factions, even though they managed to come together Monday night to reject the move to dump al-Jaafari.

Nevertheless, al-Sadr, the firebrand cleric whose backing had insured al-Jaafari's nomination at the Shiite caucus last month, predicted a "quick solution" on approving a government.

There were reports that al-Sadr had threatened to order parliamentarians loyal to him to boycott a Sunday session if Abdul-Mahdi, the Shiite vice president, had signed the Talabani order to convene the legislature.

"All obstacles to forming a national unity government soon will be resolved," al-Sadr said after meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and acting Oil Minister Ahmad Chalabi in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
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