Despite Problems, Iraqi Leader Boasts of Success

Maliki didn't mince words. "Everything the constitution says is your right, we will give you," Askiri, his informal adviser, recalled him saying. "Everything the constitution says is not your right, I will take it from you."

The next morning, the Kurdish delegation canceled its remaining meetings and flew back to northern Iraq, according to Askiri. "So they got a message," he said.

A few days later, the Kurdish leadership sent a letter outlining its concerns over the direction of the government and calling for immediate changes. The implicit threat was that the Kurds could pull out of the government at any time, and some members of the bloc seriously considered a campaign to oust Maliki, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

"The prime minister cannot go solo," said Abdul Khaliq Zangana, a Kurdish member of parliament. "We are not obligated to stay in this government. We could bring it down."

The Kurds ultimately did not engage in a sustained effort to topple Maliki, but they did set in motion a number of changes to the political landscape. In late December, the two top Kurdish leaders -- Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, and the president of the Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani -- announced a new political alliance with the top Sunni official in the government, Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a longtime enemy of Maliki.

Not long after, Maliki agreed to hold his first meetings in months with some of his fiercest political rivals. The sessions of the "three plus one" group -- Maliki and the three-member presidency council, which is made up of Talabani, Hashimi and Abdul Mahdi -- began in January after a six-month hiatus during which some of the leaders hardly spoke to one another.

The parliament also passed a budget that gives the Kurds the 17 percent they had demanded.

The tense relationship between Maliki, the top Shiite in government, and Hashimi, the highest-ranking Sunni, had been particularly acrimonious. "That is one relationship that really is genuinely bad," said the senior U.S. official, calling it "dysfunctional."

"The levels of fear and mistrust are so great between every party," the official said. "Nobody trusts anybody else. There is no background or history of political compromise."

In an interview, Hashimi said the prime minister recently seemed more comfortable in exchanging information with top government officials whom he had previously shut out of the process.

"There is a sign of improvement in mentality and attitude," said Hashimi, whose party pulled out of Maliki's cabinet last year and continues to boycott it. "He's now sharing views with us about the candidates for high-ranking posts in the government. For the first time he is telling us what has been done, what he is going to do. I myself have been invited for the first time to attend high-level meetings."

Maliki's associates said he is more willing to engage in dialogue with Hashimi because he now feels less apprehensive that the Sunnis are prepared to launch a coup, something he previously felt was a strong possibility.

At the same time, however, the prime minister is reluctant to cede any actual control to rival politicians. In a move that would greatly expand his control over the government, Maliki proposed a radical overhaul of the cabinet that would result in the dismissal of nearly all the ministers and concentrate more power in his hands. Specifically, the measure would reduce the number of ministries from 37 to 32; forbid the selection of ministers affiliated with political parties; and grant Maliki control over appointing them.

The measure would be such a blow to the other political parties that even Maliki's aides said it is unlikely he will be able to push the project through the legislature.

"I'm not too optimistic about a positive response," said Sadiq al-Rikabi, a political adviser to the prime minister.