Rice, Cheney press Iraqis to form government, U.S. officials say
 | |
|  VIDEO |
 Deadly blasts in Baghdad and Tikrit.
 Four top U.S. officers cleared in detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib.
|
|
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney have met with Iraqi leaders to accelerate formation of a new Iraqi government, two senior State Department officials and a Bush administration official said Monday.
The overtures come amid concerns about an uptick in insurgent attacks and an approaching May deadline to form a new government nearly three months after Iraqis went to the polls to choose an interim National Assembly.
In the latest violence, two double bombings in Iraq on Sunday left 24 Iraqis dead and 58 others wounded, Iraqi authories said.
One U.S. official said Rice telephoned Kurdish Democratic Party leader Mustafa Barzani on Friday and also met with Cheney and Adil Abdul Mahdi, a prominent Shiite Muslim politician chosen as one of two new Iraqi vice presidents.
The meetings were held last week in Washington to "encourage them to work it out and move on to the next stage," the official said.
Another official said that it is "taking a long time" but noted the "frustration was [also] on the Iraqi side."
The Bush administration has taken pains not to be seen as inserting itself directly into Iraqi politics, but the decision to get involved suggests growing U.S. unease with the political stalemate in Iraq.
The second official said Rice had called Barzani because he is a "major player" in Iraqi politics and the head of the Kurdish regional government.
The official disputed reports that the Kurds had been playing spoiler in backroom negotiations -- seeking to force Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance's candidate, out of office -- over the allocation of key Cabinet posts.
Under Iraq's interim constitution, al-Jaafari would be forced to give up his position if he failed to form a new government a month after his appointment. He was appointed April 7.
A senior State Department official said the delay was due to "hard bargaining" over allocation of seats between the Sunni minority, which held sway under Saddam Hussein, and the Shiite majority, which was persecuted in the old regime.
The United Iraqi Alliance and Kurdish blocs placed first and second, respectively, in the January 30 elections. They have sought to reach out to Sunnis.
CNN's Andrea Koppel and Elaine Quijano contributed to this report.
