IRAQ: Iraq's prime minister Nuri al- Maliki vowed to use "maximum force against terrorism" yesterday, as bombs killed at least 19 people in Baghdad during the first meeting of his national unity cabinet.
In a reminder of the task Mr Maliki faces in stemming bloodshed and drawing angry, fearful Iraqis back from the brink of civil war, a suicide bomber killed at least 13 people and wounded 18 in a crowded restaurant popular with police.
A day after parliament approved the cabinet of Shias, minority Sunnis and Kurds and its programme to combat violence and consolidate the US-sponsored transition to democracy, US president George W Bush said the new government marked a "new day for the millions of Iraqis who want to live in freedom".
Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said it was too early to commit to sending home some of the 130,000 US troops and said top US military commanders will meet the Iraqi government over the coming weeks to discuss the roles of Iraqi and US forces.
"It is premature before we've even had this discussion with the Iraqi government to start giving firm commitments on what the draw-down will look like," Dr Rice told Fox television.
Mr Maliki said in the programme he read to parliament that he would work to complete rebuilding Iraq's US-trained armed forces so that foreign troops could leave within an "objective timetable".
President Bush, who is eager to show signs of progress in a war he began three years ago to remove Saddam Hussein and which is costing almost daily casualties to American troops, also said the new government marked a "new chapter" in Iraqi-US relations. He telephoned Mr Maliki and other Iraqi leaders to congratulate them.
Briefing reporters after the cabinet met in Baghdad, Mr Maliki said his government would offer talks to Sunni rebels who laid down their weapons. He also vowed to finish off the militias - a tall order given the attachment his Shia and Kurdish allies maintain to their own armed groups.
"We will use maximum force against terrorism, but we also need a national initiative" for reconciliation, he said.
"Militias, death squads, terrorism, killings and assassinations are not normal and we should put an end to the militias."
Mr Bush's envoy to Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, said Mr Maliki's performance this year would be vital.
"The next six months will be truly critical for Iraq, to deal with reconciliation and uniting Iraqis. Problems there will be, because this process of state and nation building and fighting terror take time."
Another senior western official in Baghdad cautioned that sectarian and ethnic divisions remained explosive: "A lot of things can still go wrong . . . It's not a few months' job. If you expect a functioning western democracy in Iraq three years after a dictator like Saddam, you're being unrealistic."
Six people died in two other bombings in Baghdad, though recent violence is less than that which greeted the Shia-led interim government a year ago - testament, officials say, to progress by US and Iraqi forces against al-Qaeda car bombers.
Particularly since the bombing of a major Shia shrine in Samarra on February 22nd - three months ago today - there has also been a focus on ending the communal violence that is leaving dozens of bodies dumped daily in Baghdad alone and which has forced tens of thousands of Iraqis to flee their homes.