Sunnis agree to outline for Iraqi government

The Accordance Front could be trying to cut out both al-Mutlaq’s group and Allawi’s to form a government with the Shiite bloc and the Kurds.

Final results are expected as early as this week, and the Shiite religious bloc may win about 130 seats — short of the 184 seats needed to avoid a coalition with other parties to elect a president. That election is a prerequisite before a government can be formed.

The Kurds could get about 55 seats, the main Sunni Arab groups about 50 — the Front getting about 40 and al-Mutlaq’s group 10 — and Allawi secular’s bloc could receive about 25.

“This act definitely weakens and distract our claims about the fraudulent results,” al-Mutlaq said of the Accordance Front’s agreement. “I believe they are capable of making a deal with the devil himself so that they can be represented widely in the coming government.”

A deal by the three groups — the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, the Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance Front and the Kurdish coalition — could go a long way toward quickly forming a government that would have widespread approval among Iraq’s three main ethnic and sectarian groups, leading to a decrease in violence from Sunni Arab insurgents.

A year ago, it took nearly three months of negotiations between the Shiite religious alliance and a coalition of Kurdish parties to form an interim government after a Jan. 30, 2005, election that was boycotted by the Sunni Arabs.

Fuel resumed flowing at Iraq’s largest oil refinery for the first time in nearly two weeks. The shutdown forced stations around the country to ration gas, creating long lines.

“We started to supply the tankers with oil products after the government promised to secure them along the highways,” Ahmed Ibrahim Hamadi said Monday.

Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum said he resigned after the government last week gave him a forced vacation and replaced him with Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi following criticisms about sharply increased fuel prices.

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