Iraq's new parliament sworn in
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-16 21:28

Al-Jaafari's candidacy for a second term as prime minister is at the center of the political logjam that delayed parliament's first session for over a month after the results of Dec. 15 elections were approved.

Under the constitution, the largest parliamentary bloc, controlled by Shiites, has the right to nominate the prime minister. Al-Jaafari won the Shiite nomination by a single vote last month.

Politicians involved in the negotiations have said part of the Shiite bloc, those aligned with al-Hakim, would like to see al-Jaafari ousted but fear the consequences, given his backing from radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and al-Sadr's powerful Mahdi Army.

Sunni, Kurdish and some secular Shiites argue al-Jaafari is too divisive and accuse him of not doing enough to contain waves of revenge killing after bombers destroyed an important Shiite shrine on Feb. 22 and ripped apart teeming markets in an al-Sadr stronghold in Baghdad on Sunday.

Police reported the discovery of 27 more bodies discarded in various parts of the Baghdad overnight and Thursday morning. The victims were all men, some with their hands bound, who had been shot execution-style and dumped in both Shiite and Sunni Muslim neighborhoods, said Interior Ministry official Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi.

North of the capital, a roadside bomb exploded near a girl's primary school near Baqouba, killing three students aged 12-13, police said. Another bomb missed a U.S. patrol in Mosul, killing one civilian, police said.

In Ramadi, residents picked through the rubble of a home they said was destroyed in a U.S. raid. Residents have reported repeated clashes in the city in an insurgent-plagued area west of Baghdad.

Recent AP Television News video showed a gunbattle in which a gasoline truck was set on fire, and at a separate location the killing of an unidentified man with heavy gunfire audible in the background. The U.S. military has not responded to repeated requests for information.

A pianist played as representatives of the countries main ethnic and religious blocs — many in traditional Arab and Kurdish dress — filed into a convention center behind the concrete blast walls of the heavily fortified Green Zone for parliament's first meeting.

The inaugural session started the clock on a 60-day period in which parliament must elect a president and approve a prime minister and Cabinet.

But there was little sign of progress after a second full day of meetings Wednesday among leaders of the major political blocs. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad brokered the sessions, designed to speed agreement on the next government's shape.

"I expect that there still will be difficulties over choosing the prime minister," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish politician who was in Wednesday's session.