Jaafari presents government to parliament

Designated Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari reviewed the formation of his interim government to the presidential to be presented before the Iraqi National Assembly ( parliament) today, Thursday.

Jawad al-Maliki, the leading figure in al-Dawa (call ) party which is led by al-Jaafari said that an agreement has been made on the names of the final list of the government formation, stressed that if it is approved, it will start action immediately.

He attributed the reason for announcing the government to "changing certain names in the list," noting that an agreement was made to establish two new ministries for tourism and antiquities.

The new government formation includes 33 ministers, 17 of them are Shiite, 8 Kurds and 6 Sunni, One Turkman and one for the Christians. It is, however, expected that the ministry of defense will be assigned to the Sunni which will be assumed by Saad al-Duleimi. One of the main candidates for the post of the prime minister is Ahmad Chalabi.