Seisatni calls Iraqi coalition to dedicate efforts for constitution's formulation

An official in the list of the United Iraqi Coalition list ruled out the formation of the new Iraqi government before the end of the next week.

The parliamentarian in the National Assembly, Hussein al-Shahristani, said that the meeting of the National Assembly on Sunday, tomorrow, will be dedicated to issues relating to the parliament rather than announcing the formation of the next government.

Al-Shahristani attributed that to the Sunni acceptance of the ministerial bags given to them after they had boycotted the legislative elections carried out in January. This, however, requires more negotiations to redistribute ministerial bags.

Consultations by Ibrahim al-Jaafari continued to fill the ministerial positions in the coming government, which includes 31 seats, with more than half of it for the Shiite.

The spokesman for al-Jaafari, Adnan al-Kazemi, said that contacts are continuous with the former Iraqi prime minister Eyad Allawi but without having settled the disputes inside his bloc itself.

On the other hand, the Shiite clergy Ayatullah Ali al-Seistani expressed his desire that the focus now should be dedicate to the formulation of the Iraqi constitution.