Iraqi leaders name Shiite al-Jaafari new prime minister

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Cementing Iraq's first democratic government in 50 years, one of Saddam's Hussein's most implacable enemies took his oath as president Thursday and quickly named another longtime foe of the ousted dictator to the powerful post of prime minister.\nThe new government's main task will be to draft a permanent constitution and lay the groundwork for elections in December, although some worry that the two months of political wrangling taken up in forming the leadership hasn't left enough time.\nThe swearing-in ceremony came just two days short of the second anniversary of Baghdad's fall to U.S.-led forces and underlined the growing power and cooperation of the Shiite Arab majority and Kurdish minority -- groups that were long oppressed by Saddam's regime.\nThere were stumbles, though.\nAfter his inaugural speech, interim President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, walked off the stage, and members of the National Assembly and onlookers began to disperse and television feeds were cut.\nTalabani came back about 10 minutes later and had to shout to a dwindling crowd that the President's Council -- Talabani and his two vice presidents -- had, as expected, selected Shiite Arab leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari as interim prime minister.\nSenior Kurdish official Barham Saleh blamed the misstep on miscommunication, saying lawmakers didn't realize the ceremony hadn't ended with Talabani's speech.\nSome Shiite lawmakers felt snubbed.\n"We hope that they forgot," said Abbas Hassan Mousa al-Bayati, a top member of al-Jafaari's Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance. "This happened because of bad management."\nAl-Jaafari didn't seem upset, telling reporters afterward: "This day represents a democratic process and a step forward."\n"I'm faced with a big responsibility, and I pray to God that everyone will work hand-in-hand and that their efforts will lead to progress and development," he added.\nSome Iraqis have expressed concern about al-Jaafari's close ties to the Islamic government in Iran and his work for the conservative Islamic Dawa Party, which has called for the implementation of Islamic law. But lawmakers didn't express any reservations Thursday.\nAl-Jaafari said women will play a bigger role in his government, and he promised to fight the violence of the insurgency.\n"There are two kinds of terrorism: terrorism from inside Iraq -- and these are criminals, some of them with ties to the former regime -- and the other is the terrorism exported from abroad," he said.\nIraq's new leaders were longtime foes of Saddam, who watched a videotape of Talabani's election Wednesday but was not expected to be shown Thursday's ceremony.\nAl-Jaafari spent more than two decades in exile helping to lead anti-Saddam opposition forces among Shiite Arabs, while Talabani was one of the most influential leaders in the resistance of ethnic Kurds to Saddam as well as Arab domination.\nShiite Arabs and Kurds have worked together in putting the government together, and Talabani -- whose post is largely ceremonial -- reached out Thursday to Sunni Arabs, who are believed to make up the backbone of the insurgency and were the dominant group under Saddam.\n"It is time for our Sunni brothers to participate in the democratic march," the president said.\nLawmakers have appointed Sunni Arabs to several top posts in an effort to build a broad-based government, but prominent Sunni Arab groups have distanced themselves from the new administration.\nSunni Arabs have only 17 seats in parliament, largely because many boycotted the Jan. 30 elections or stayed home for fear of attacks at the polls. Shiites have 140 of the 275 seats in the National Assembly, while Kurds have the second largest bloc with 75 seats.