Cabinet to include temporary posts

Permanent ministers of defense and the interior have not yet been appointed.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq's incoming prime minister failed to reach agreement Friday with political leaders on who will run the key defense and interior ministries but said he will present his Cabinet to parliament anyway with temporary heads in those posts.
Nouri al-Maliki's announcement came as roadside bombs and other attacks killed 17 Iraqis. His decision to push ahead with forming a government was yet another sign of his determination to waste no time addressing Iraq's security -- his administration's top priority.
Already he has shortened the Cabinet appointment process so that with parliament's expected approval today, ministers can be inaugurated the same day.
After meeting with political representatives, the prime minister-designate said his Cabinet had been settled except for the two contested slots, and that he would present his nominees to the 275-member parliament today.
"We decided on the names of the ministers and we will announce them" today "except for interior and defense ministries. Both will be acting [temporary] ministers until we will choose the best ministers for those posts," he said.
Sunni Arabs want the Defense Ministry, which runs the army; the Shiites want the Interior Ministry, which controls the police.
Interim ministers
In the interim, deputy parliament speaker Khalid al-Attiyah told The Associated Press, al-Maliki will serve as interior minister and Salam Zikam Ali al-Zubaie, a Sunni Arab, will head the Defense Ministry. He said they would serve for a week to allow for an agreement on permanent appointments.
Al-Zubaie is the Sunni nominee for deputy premier, and his political group is part of the main Sunni Arab coalition, the Iraqi Accordance Front.
Later Friday, a senior official with the Accordance Front, Adnan al-Dulaimi, said his coalition would support al-Maliki's Cabinet choices, as long as they were decided on quickly to help quell sectarian unrest.
The Cabinet list, its members or its number, has not been made public. It remained unclear what would happen if any nominee is rejected, though it was unlikely al-Maliki would risk presenting a deal lawmakers would not approve.
Al-Maliki did not say when the interior and defense ministers would be chosen but did say the posts would go to people "well known as independents, honest, not loyal to any militia or the equivalent."
Five civilians killed
In Friday's worst violence, a gunbattle between insurgents and Iraqi police killed five civilians and wounded eight in Jihad, a neighborhood of western Baghdad, said police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq. He said U.S. forces helped police seal off the area after the fighting.
The brother of a kidnapped United Arab Emirates diplomat said Friday that his government reported the hostage was freed, but hours later backed away from that statement and said the family could not confirm the release.
Naji Rashid al-Nuaimi, 28, first secretary at the UAE Embassy in Iraq, was seized Tuesday in Baghdad by gunmen who killed his driver.
Al-Nuaimi's brother Mohammed told The Associated Press on Friday afternoon the family had been told by government officials that al-Nuaimi had been freed.
But Friday evening, Mohammed al-Nuaimi said he could not confirm his brother was released. "We have heard reports, but we have not received confirmation from any government officials," he said.
The UAE government declined to comment.
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