After months of negotiations over the makeup of Iraq's government, Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari drafted a proposed list of Cabinet ministers and will submit it to the president, a spokesman said Tuesday.
According to The AP, Al-Jaafari met with President Jalal Talabani to present the draft, said al-Jaafari's spokesman, Abdul Razak al-Kadhi. If the list is approved by Talabani's three-member presidential council, al-Jaafari could submit it to the 275-member National Assembly for a vote later Tuesday.
Lawmakers from al-Jaafari's Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance said the list included 31 ministries distributed between Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni factions. The party of outgoing Prime Minister Ayad Allawi was not included.
In Washington, the top US general said US forces were winning in Iraq but "insurgents" were still as capable as they were a year ago.
Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Richard Myers' comments came amid an increase in attacks, some involving multiple car bombings as well as larger, coordinated assaults on military objectives. All in all, some 400 attacks are carried out each week.
In a related development, the kidnappers of three Romanian journalists meanwhile have given Bucharest until 1300 GMT to declare the withdrawal of its 860 troops from Iraq in order to save the journalists' lives, Al-Jazeera television reported.
