BAGHDAD, March 27 -- The National Assembly called lawmakers on Sunday to a session originally planned for the seating of Iraq's new government, but public disputes over the role of religion and private haggling over posts have scaled back expectations.
Tuesday's meeting may now see the assembly elect only its speaker and two deputies, interim Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and others said.
Two months after Iraq's first free elections in more than 50 years, disputes still are delaying agreement on a slate for president, prime minister and cabinet.
Ayad Allawi, prime minister of the interim government, has yet to agree to join the leading coalition, said knowledgeable Kurds, who, after Shiites, would make up the largest bloc in a planned national unity government.
Allawi's supporters expressed concern in an open letter this week about Shiites' commitment to secular rule. The Shiite bloc, which holds 140 of the 275 seats in the National Assembly elected in January, insists it wants a government that is also acceptable to minority Kurds and Sunnis.
U.N. envoy Ashraf Qazi called on Iraq's most influential Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, to "ask his advice and know his view concerning the current political process,'' Qazi said in Najaf.
Sistani, who has played a key behind-the-scenes role in efforts to create a coalition government, assured Qazi during Sunday's visit that he would stay out of day-to-day politics, the Associated Press quoted the U.N. envoy as saying.
-- Caryle Murphy
