A Sunni Muslim on Iraq's Governing Council was tipped on Sunday to become the first post-Saddam Hussein president, as an interim government took shape amid fresh violence in the holy city of Najaf.
Arab media networks have aired various unconfirmed reports on the line-up of the government to take over after the June 30 return of sovereignty, but several posts including that of president are still being fought over. Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni who currently chairs the Governing Council, held an edge over senior US-backed statesman Adnan Pachachi to take the largely ceremonial post of president.
"Ghazi al-Yawar will definitely be the president unless the Americans block it," council member Mahmud Othman told AFP Sunday, stressing that the council backed his nomination.
The council was working to surmount the opposition of the US overseer in Iraq, Paul Bremer, who was thought to have set his hopes on installing Pachachi as president.
According to an Iraqi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, one of the two vice-president posts would almost certainly go to Roj Nuri Shawis from the Kurdistan Democratic Party and a top lieutenant to Kurdish chieftain Massoud Barzani.
The other was still undecided between Ibrahim Jaffari from the religious Shiite party Dawa, and Adel Abdel Mahdi from the rival Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution.
Several officials expected the line-up to be finalised by the end of Sunday. An official involved in the consultations said Bremer had hijacked the nomination process by putting pressure on the council, which he installed last year, to cut their talks short.
UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, the man who was supposed to be taking the lead in chosing the government, was reportedly leaning toward a different line-up to rule the country through to elections in January.
The former exiled dissident and CIA-backed coup plotter who has been named prime minister designate, Iyad Allawi, meanwhile came under fire for his alleged ties to Washington.
One Iraqi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, warned that the population would perceive 58-year-old Allawi as a US appointment.
Gunmen attacked three civilian vehicles carrying foreigners in north-west Baghdad on Sunday, killing two Westerners and seizing three others, witnesses and police at the scene said.
Two of the four-wheel-drive vehicles, of the type used by foreign contractors, employees of the US-led administration and some media in Iraq, appeared to have collided after coming under fire on a main highway, and two bodies could be seen.
In one of the cars, a dark-coloured sports utility vehicle, both front airbags had inflated and were stained red with blood. Bloodstains were also soaked into the back seat.
After the attack, locals set the two vehicles ablaze, and later shooting erupted between gunmen and police at the scene.
In April, dozens of foreigners were taken hostage on Baghdad's highways. Most were released, but some are still being held and at least two were killed. South of Baghdad in the latest violation of the fragile truce reached on Wednesday.
The fighting lasted for about an hour and appeared to be coming from the northern extremities of the city's vast cemetery and the 1920 Revolution Square, the scenes of fierce clashes in recent weeks between Sadr loyalists and US troops.
Sadr supporters said the fighting erupted when a US vehicle patrolled near their positions close to the cemetery.
A political dispute also threatened to spill over into violence in the western town of Ramadi where Iraqi police surrounded the offices of politician Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress (INC) party.
Mithal al-Allussi, a senior member of the INC, said police had surrounded the party's offices since Saturday and accused them of being former members of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's Baath party.
In another statement, the US military reported that a soldier was killed and nine wounded in a mortar attack on May 25 on a base south of Baghdad.
Another mortar attack on a military base near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul missed its target Sunday, killing a mother and her seven-year-old daughter, police and witnesses said.
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