Iraq's parliament approved new ministers of defence, interior and national security yesterday, ending a three week stalemate among Iraq's sectarian and ethnic parties over the crucial posts.

The new defence minister is Iraqi Army General Abdul-Qader Mohammed Jassim al-Mifarji, a Sunni Arab, and Shi'ites Jawad al-Bolani for Interior and Sherwan al-Waili for national security.

The posts are considered crucial for al-Maliki's government to implement a plan allowing Iraqi forces to take over security for the country from the US-led coalition within 18 months, opening the way for the eventual withdrawal of foreign troops.

Al-Mifarji, who is not affiliated to any Sunni Arab party, told the 275-member body that he graduated from the Iraqi military academy in 1969 and was thrown out of the military and Saddam Hussein's now outlawed Baath Party in 1991 after he criticized the invasion of Kuwait which led to his conviction by a military court in 1994 and a seven year prison sentence.

He said he was "not affiliated to any political party and as a defence minister I will work for all Iraqis and will not work according to my tribal, religious and ethnic background. I will be only an Iraqi and will spare no effort. If I find myself unqualified I will be the first one to quit."

The new interior minister is an independent member of the dominant Shi'ite United Iraqi Alliance. He is an aeronautical engineering graduate from Baghdad's University of Technology.

Al-Waili, a member of the Iraqi Dawa Party, graduated from Iraq's military school of engineering in 1979 and was jailed after the Shi'ite uprising of 1991 in Basra, southern Iraq. He then served as head of the provincial council in southern Nasiriyah, and then as undersecretary for public works. He then worked as an adviser for regional affairs in the National security ministry.

But al-Waili's Dawa group is not related to the Dawa party of which al-Maliki is a member.

(China Daily June 9, 2006)