Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's new prime minister-designate, has said he will present his Cabinet, minus the defence and interior ministries, on Saturday to the 275-member parliament for its approval.
The prime minister-designate, who had earlier met officials of other groups, said on Friday that a decision had been made on the Cabinet "except for defence and interior ministries."
"We decided on the names of the ministers and we will announce them on Saturday except for interior and defence ministries. Both will be under acting (temporary) ministers until we choose the best ministers for those posts," he said.
Despite his failure to find acceptable nominees for the two posts of defence and interior, it was unlikely that al-Maliki would take the risk of presenting a deal parliament would reject.
Sunni for defence
Sunni Arabs want the defence ministry, which runs the army, while the Shiites want the interior ministry, which controls the police.
The Cabinet list, its members or its number has not been formally released, but al-Maliki said he would make it public when parliament, known as the council of representatives, convened in the heavily fortified Green Zone. It remains unclear what will happen if any nominee is rejected.
Khalid al-Attiyah, deputy parliament speaker, told the Associated Press that al-Maliki himself would serve as acting interior minister for a week. He said that Salam Zikam Ali al-Zubaie, a Sunni Arab who is a deputy with the main Accordance Front, would temporarily head the defence ministry for the same period to allow time for agreement on permanent ministers.
Al-Zubaie, who is the Sunni Arab nominee for deputy premier, heads the agriculture engineers union and is a member of a Sunni political group, the General Conference of the Iraqi People.
Coalition support
Meanwhile, Adnan al-Dulaimi, a senior official in the main Sunni Arab Accordance Front, said his coalition would support Nouri al-Maliki's Cabinet choices.
"It doesn't matter to us that they will announce the government without the defence or interior ministries, and appoint the deputy prime minister from the Accordance Front to the defence post and the prime minister to the interior ministry," al-Dulaimi said.
But he said a decision should be made quickly because "the security situation is still unstable and there are numerous acts of killing and theft."
Al-Maliki did not say when the interior and defence ministers would be chosen, but said the two posts would be given to people "who will be well known as independents, honest, not loyal to any militia or the equivalent."
It has been known that a final deal is still in the works when al-Maliki announced earlier that he would go ahead and seek parliamentary approval for his Cabinet.
Al-Maliki has been so certain it would be approved that he shortened the process to allow the immediate inauguration of his government, a sign of his determination to waste no time addressing the new administration's top priority, namely security.