IRAQ: Iraq's new government devoted much of its first cabinet meeting yesterday to dealing with the violence that poses a threat to plans for elections in the new year.
The new prime minister, Mr Iyad Allawi, told his UN- approved team of mostly untried technocrats that security was "the number one priority".
Mr Allawi said the government would continue to work closely with US forces once the US hands back sovereignty on June 30th, but was pressing its case at the UN on a resolution that will set the powers Iraq has over foreign troops on its soil. "Yesterday and today, there have been terrorist attacks. As Iraqis, we want to work with the multinational force and with friends and our brothers in the region to defeat these continued threats to Iraq and the Iraqi people," Mr Allawi said.
As he spoke, US troops that will make up the bulk of that 150,000-strong multinational force were battling Shia militia near Najaf in fighting that left at least four Iraqis dead.
Huge explosions also rocked a major US military base outside the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk yesterday after what police said was a rocket strike on an arms store. Earlier, a car bomb killed five and wounded more than 35 on a busy Baghdad street.