Iraq's parliament today approved ministers for six contested government posts, ending months of stalemate that hampered efforts to tackle an escalating insurgency.
Within hours of the announcement, though, one of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari nominees declined the post saying he would accept a position offered for sectarian reasons.
In making his anouncement Mr Jaafari said he may appoint one more official to his government - a fourth deputy prime minister, chosen from among the women in parliament - but otherwise the cabinet was finally complete more than three months after millions of Iraqis voted in historic elections.
Mr Jaafari said the cabinet would now press ahead with efforts to defeat the insurgency. "We will take all necessary steps to fight this monstrous phenomenon," he said.
Guerrillas have unleashed a surge in violence over the past 10 days, killing more than 300 people in a series of attacks that defied government predictions the insurgency was crumbling.
Today gunmen assassinated senior transport ministry official Zobaa Yassin as he drove to work. Yesterday, al Qaeda's network in Iraq hit a foreign security convoy with a car bomb in the heart of Baghdad, killing at least 22 people including two Americans.
Saadoun al-Dulaimi, a Sunni Arab former military officer with tribal ties to Iraq's rebellious western Anbar province, was today given the key defence portfolio. The government hopes that putting a Sunni in the post will help undermine the insurgency that is being mainly fought by Sunni guerrillas.
A respected Shi'ite official, Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, was named oil minister, an important post in the oil-rich nation. Sunnis were given the human rights ministry and the industry ministry, and a Sunni deputy prime minister was named to join Shi'ite and Kurdish deputies already appointed.
This gives Sunni Arabs a strong cabinet presence despite having minimal influence in parliament with only 17 of the assembly's 275 seats.
The Sunni minority dominated Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rule but was sidelined after the January elections, with most Sunni Arabs staying away from the polls due to calls for a boycott and fears of insurgent violence.
Bickering among leading political blocs over the shape of the new government delayed the formation of a cabinet for months, infuriating many Iraqis who voted in the elections despite threats and suicide bomb attacks on polling stations.
No sooner had the problems seemed resolved than Hisham al-Shibli one of the Sunni appointments said he was turning down the post. "I will not accept this post on these terms, and I reject it," told said.
"This post was given to me without anyone consulting me. I was surprised when they nominated me. It was just because I am a Sunni," Mr al-Shibli said.
Iraq'a parliament later approved the cabinet despite Mr al-Shibli's refusal to accept the post of human rights minister.
Mr Jaafari has yet to comment.