Iraq assembly meets amid blasts
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 Recently elected lawmakers in Baghdad for their first meeting.
 Several blasts go off just ahead of the first meeting of the Iraq National Assembly.
 Iraq's new government faces growing pains, lack of basic services.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Calling for democracy and freedom in the midst of insurgent attacks, the leaders of Iraq's interim government Wednesday challenged the country's new National Assembly to strive for "national unity."
The 275-member assembly was sworn in as about half a dozen explosions rattled the area around the convention center where members met.
The U.S. military said it was investigating the explosions.
"Freedom and democracy are great goals we should achieve," interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi told the gathering. "We have great duties to face and stand up to."
President Bush congratulated the people of Iraq as the country's transitional national assembly met Wednesday.
"It was a hopeful moment, I thought," Bush told reporters at a news conference at the White House.
The new government's shape was uncertain as the assembly gathered for its inaugural session, coming nearly two years after the U.S. invasion and six weeks after national elections.
Members of the United Iraqi Alliance and Kurdish leaders Tuesday reached a "memorandum of understanding" on the formation of a new government, officials said.
Although negotiations were continuing, both sides agreed "in principle" on all issues, Dawa party official Adnan Ali Al-Kadhimi said.
Key issues among the assembly are the appointment of Ibrahim al-Jaafari as prime minister and Jalal Talabani as president. Talabani's selection marks the first time a Kurd would hold such a role in the country.
Talabani spoke to the assembly, saying the country's first freely elected parliament in 50 years must "build the new Iraqi state on democracy and freedom."
As the assembly met, Iraqi interim Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the Shiite and Kurdish coalitions were close to striking a deal on the new government's makeup and formation.
"... The convening of the assembly will give us all a new impetus to move faster to form the new government on the basis of inclusiveness, of representativeness."
Zebari said he has heard the public grumbling as the process of putting the coalition together has dragged on.
"We understand people's frustration, but remember ... this is a new experience in democracy," he said. "This will take time. This is coalition-building. This is the inclusion of others."
The new assembly has key points to tackle as it convenes -- one of the many reasons the political wrangling may stretch a number of days into the session.
Its first act of business will be to elect a president of the assembly to preside over its deliberations. Then the body will pick the presidency council -- a president and two vice presidents -- both requiring a two-thirds majority.
The presidency council will present a prime minister to the assembly, and again a two-thirds majority will be required for approval.
The coalition of the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance and Kurdish political parties will give those groups the clout to set up the new government with more than two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.
Other developments
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Bush spoke Wednesday about the partial withdrawal of Italy's 3,000 troops in Iraq in September. Bush, during his news conference, said Berlusconi "wanted me to know that there was no change in his policy." Italy's military's presence in Iraq has been unpopular with many Italians, especially after an Italian intelligence agent was killed at a U.S. checkpoint while escorting a freed hostage. (Full story)A car bomb exploded at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baquba on Wednesday, killing at least two Iraqi soldiers, U.S. and Iraqi military officials said. Since hostilites began in Iraq, 1,517 troops have died.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
