Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said today he would convene parliament in six days, but political wrangling means a government of national unity is unlikely to be formed any time soon.
As Mr Talabani today met a constitutional requirement to summon parliament after elections in December, a car bomb north of Baghdad killed six people, including two children. Five other car bombs exploded in the capital.
Nearly three months after the election, Iraq's political leaders are still fighting over the post of prime minister. The row is unlikely to end soon, meaning parliament may only get as far as naming a speaker in its first session.
"I will call today for parliament to hold the first session on the 12th of the current month since it is the last day that the constitution allows," Mr Talabani said.
According to the US-sponsored interim constitution, which is still in force, lawmakers must first elect a speaker of parliament and then a president and two deputies, who then name a prime minister to form a new government within two weeks.
But there is no timeframe for these posts to be filled. The new constitution, approved in a referendum last October, gives a timetable, but it will take effect only after the country's first four-year government is formed.
Sunnis, Kurds and others are opposed to the nomination of Shia Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and are calling for the Shia Alliance, the biggest bloc in parliament, to replace him.
Mr Talabani sent a delegation yesterday to meet influential Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to help break the impasse over the premiership.
The dispute has delayed the formation of a grand coalition government that Washington has promoted in the hope of fostering stability and allowing their troops to begin withdrawing.
The reclusive Sistani, based in the city of Najaf, is not directly involved in politics but has huge influence over the bulk of the country's 60 per cent Shia majority.
The sectarian violence that has claimed well over 500 lives since Samarra's Golden Mosque was destroyed by a bomb on February 22nd continued today.
A car bomb in Baquba killed six people, two of whom were girls aged three and four, and wounded 23, police said. It exploded near a packed market, after police arrived to check a separate incident in which one person had been killed.
Five policemen were wounded in the bombing, police said.
In Baghdad, which was relatively quiet over the weekend, several people were wounded in car bombings around the city, including at least four police officers.