Iraq's Incoming PM to Unveil Cabinet

In this photo released by U.S. MArine Corps, marines survey a damaged bridge in Haditha, Iraq, Monday, May 1, 2006. Detachment One of the Camp Pendleton, California-based 3rd Civil Affairs Group, which is comprised of more than 30 Marines, works throughout Anbar Province with local government officials, sheikhs, mayors and other leaders to identify and jumpstart various reconstruction and quality of life projects designed to rebuild damaged infrastructure. (AP Photo/US Marine Corps, Sgt. Roe F. Seigle) (Sgt. Roe F. Seigle - AP)

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's incoming prime minister said Wednesday he will unveil his Cabinet to parliament this weekend, the first sign that the country may finally be moving ahead with a national unity government after weeks of wrangling.

On Thursday, gunmen stopped a minibus and killed all eight Iraqis aboard it in Baghdad, and 15 athletes were kidnapped in western Iraq while driving to a training camp in neighboring Jordan, police said.

The victims of the Baghdad attack were seven car mechanics heading to work and their minibus driver. The gunmen ordered all of them off the vehicle in a remote area of southwestern Baghdad and shot them, said police 1st Lt. Maithem Abde-Razaq.

The kidnapping of the 15 taekwondo athletes occurred Wednesday on a road between the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, one of the most violent areas of Iraq. They were members of a private sports club that hopes to one day send athletes to the Olympics.

Meanwhile, there are hopes that sharing power successfully will help heal the sectarian rift underlying the relentless wave of violence that has swept Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion three years ago and open the way for American troops to begin returning home.

But talks were still under way on choices to head the critical ministries of interior and defense, which control the police and army respectively. Without an eventual agreement, no resolution is possible of the basic conflict between Shiites and Sunni Arabs.

A spokesman for Prime Minister-designate Nouri al-Maliki told The Associated Press that he would present the Cabinet at a parliament session Saturday with or without a decision on those two posts.

"The government is almost completed. Only the interior and defense ministries remain," said the spokesman, Salah Abdul-Razaq. "If an agreement is not reached, the announcement will be made without these posts."

He did not elaborate, but his remarks suggested that al-Maliki, a Shiite, would appoint himself to head the two ministries until all parties agreed on the two appointees. Saturday would be two days ahead of a 30-day deadline for al-Maliki to present a Cabinet, and it was unlikely that he would present a deal for parliament to vote down.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he was informed that Malaki had chosen his defense minister, but he did not say who the choice was. Rumsfeld also said he understood that the full Cabinet will be announced by the deadline.

Parliament, officially the Council of Representatives, must approve each proposed minister by an absolute majority of all 275 members. That means not simply a majority of the members who show up for the session.

If the prime minister fails to win approval of his Cabinet, President Jalal Talabani has 15 days to designate another nominee, who will then have 30 days to form a Cabinet. The constitution does not rule out reappointing al-Maliki, in effect giving him more time to complete the process.