Government another week away

By Kamal Taha in Baghdad
25mar05

SHIITE and Kurdish figures have delayed the second session of Iraq's elected parliament until Monday at least, and warned that bargaining over the formation of a government may drag on for another week.

Iraqi troops meanwhile battled insurgents in their former stronghold of Fallujah, and five Iraqi policemen and soldiers died in a friendly-fire incident yesterday.

Elsewhere, US ambassador to Bulgaria James Pardew asked Bulgaria's parliament not to set a definite date for the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq, a parliament spokesman in Sofia said.

The request came a day after the Bulgarian defence ministry said it would withdraw its 450 troops from Iraq by the end of the year. <snip>

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