Iraq's parliament was sworn in Thursday since it was elected in December but talks on forming a national unity government are deadlocked and the session did little to halt a slide to civil war.

What might have been the crowning moment of a US-backed political process that began with the invasion three years ago to overthrow Saddam Hussein, was reduced to 20 minutes of protocol that did little but meet a constitutional deadline.

"It is just something we have to get off our backs," one senior parliamentarian said. "Then we'll go and sit at the negotiating table and yell at each other."

With no agreement among Shi'ites, Sunnis, Kurds and others on the posts of speaker, president, prime minister or cabinet members, no substantive business can be conducted.

Even the keynote address by Adnan Pachachi, the oldest member and acting speaker, was cut short by a powerful Shi'ite Islamist leader when Pachachi, a secular Sunni, launched into a criticism of "sectarian domination" a clear attack on the past year's rule by the Shi'ite-led interim government.
 
"We have to tell the world there will be no civil war among the Iraqi people. The risk is there," the patrician Pachachi, who was foreign minister in the 1960s, told the 275-seat chamber in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone government compound.

PM Jaafari remains defiant

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, whose nomination by fellow Shi'ites to a second term is blocking any agreement with Kurds, Sunnis and secular leaders, insisted he had the right as the elected choice of the biggest group to hang on to his job.

"I did not get here as part of a deal so I cannot be pushed aside as part of a deal," Jaafari said. He earlier told a news conference: "If my people ask me to step aside I will."

Opposition to Jaafari from rivals within the Alliance could yet sink him, politicians in other blocs believe. Jaafari won an internal ballot by a single vote last month. Critics blame him for failures in security and the economy over the past year.

"The problem is the Alliance is divided," a senior official in the Alliance said. "This has weakened the Alliance position."

Technically, the "first" session was not adjourned, a piece of legal sleight of hand that gives parliament an open-ended timetable to elect a speaker, which the constitution says should happen at the first session.

Some officials said the session may resume in a week or so.

Once the speaker is chosen, the new constitution sets a 30-day timetable for forming a government, though there is dispute over whether this should apply to the first parliament.

With Washington anxious for a deal that it hopes can bring stability and let it bring its 133,000 troops home, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has been shepherding party leaders into intensive talks this week on forming a government.

Largest air assault since invasion

US forces Thursday launched what was termed the largest air assault since the US-led invasion, targeting insurgent strongholds north of the capital, the US military said.

"More than 1,500 Iraqi and Coalition troops, over 200 tactical vehicles, and more than 50 aircraft participated in the operation," the military statement said of the attack designed to "clear a suspected insurgent operating area northeast of Samarra," 95 kilometres north of Baghdad.

The military said the operation was expected to continue over several days against insurgent targets in Salahuddin province, where Samarra is a key city.

(China Daily March 17, 2006)