Schoolchildren blown up in Baghdad

The tragedy of Georgie and his Administration corrupt war and occupation

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Three schoolchildren were among 13 people killed in Baghdad as politicians began squaring off to form a new Iraqi government with only 10 days left until the first session of parliament.

The children were on their way to school when they stopped to look at a bag in the central neighborhood of Al-Fadel, a predominantly Sunni area.

"I saw the children playing with a bag lying in front of a photography store and suddenly it exploded," said Ali Mahmud, who was driving by in his minibus.

"I saw the body of one of the children thrown five meters (yards) into the street and I didn't have time to stop my bus and ran over it. It was awful," he said.

Shootings and three car bombs in Baghdad claimed 10 more lives, including those of six policemen.

In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen shot dead an official of the former ruling Baath party, Yunes Omar, raising to four the number of ex-Baathists killed in the city in 10 days, police said.

On the political front, 10 days ahead of the first session of the new parliament, negotiations over the makeup of the future government revolved around several issues.

These included the role of former Baath members in public life, amending the constitution and the issue of federalism.

International interest in the process is high, with pressure mounting for the creation of a national unity government that represents all segments of a religiously and ethnically mixed society.

The UN Security Council called on Tuesday for "a fully inclusive government, which will strive to build a peaceful, prosperous, democratic and united Iraq".

And US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad called on elected leaders to "govern from the center, not from the ideological extremes", in an article published in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday.

"Iraqi leaders believe that this could be accomplished by forming a council composed of key Iraqi leaders to focus on issues of national importance," he wrote.

The council mentioned by Khalilzad coincides with a similar demand by former prime minister Iyad Allawi's secular Iraqi National List.

"We insist on the creation of this council to supervise the actions of the government and draw up a strategy for the country," said Rassem al-Awadi of the cross-sectarian list.

Allawi's list, which won 25 seats in parliament, is allied to the more conservative Sunni Arab parties in an 80-seat bloc. It is also offering "a security plan, an economic restructuring plan and a plan to improve services".

One of the Sunnis' main demands is to freeze for one year controversial articles of the constitution, particularly those on greater federalism favored by the Shiites and Kurds.

Saleh Motlak, leader of the Sunni National Dialogue, said he wants "the implementation of the clause for the creation of an (autonomous) region in the south and center of the country postponed to the next assembly."

But a close aide to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who has been chosen by the victorious Shiite Iraqi National Alliance to stay in office, made it clear that this would be a political battle.

Objecting to any postponements over application of the constitution, Haj Ali al-Adib said the charter was "adopted in a referendum (held last year) and is in force."

However, he added that "if we reach agreement on a minimum program, we could form a government of national unity."

Key in any negotiation will be the Kurdish Alliance, the outgoing government's coalition partners and which holds 53 seats in the new parliament.

Mahmoud Othman of the alliance said his bloc wanted a government with "a clear position on terrorism, removing remnants of the Baath and amending the constitution".

A Western diplomat suggested that setting up a national unity government would trigger confidence-building amongst the parties.

"The one benefit of an agreement of a national unity cross-sectarian government I think will be greater confidence that a lot of these other issues can be resolved constructively," he told reporters.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, would neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of a series of previously unpublished photographs that aired Wednesday purportedly showing abuse of prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.

The Australian public broadcasting SBS aired what it said were previously unpublished images taken at Abu Ghraib showing prisoners -- some bloodied, others naked, and one smeared with excrement -- abused by US soldiers.

Meanwhile, the online version of the German magazine Der Spiegel quoted a leading Sunni Arab cleric as saying that two German engineers held hostage in Iraq were expected to be released soon.

But Sheikh Hareth al-Dari said his words had been "distorted".

"I called for the kidnappers to release the Germans, and all the others taken hostage in Iraq," during a meeting on Wednesday with the German ambassador to Iraq, Bernd Erbel, the cleric told AFP.

Rene Braeunlich, 31, and Thomas Nitzschke, 28, were abducted on January 24 by a group demanding the German government end all cooperation with Iraqi authorities.

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