BAGHDAD - Iraq's incumbent Shi'ite Muslim prime minister said the next government to be formed after an inconclusive election in March had to include the Sunni-backed coalition that won the most seats. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is seeking a second term, said in an interview aired Friday it was too early for Iraq to be run by a majority government and a "national partnership government" was needed to ensure stability after years of war. That meant the next government would be weak due to its subservience to conflicting interests, he said. "I had wished that the (next) government would be formed on the basis of a political majority, leaving behind the quota-based system, but it seems that idea is still premature," Maliki told the US-funded al-Hurra television network. "The thing we have to accept is that there must be a national partnership government. A national partnership government means all main factions making up the Iraqi community are represented in it." Maliki's Shi'ite-led State of Law alliance came second in the March 7 vote with 89 seats in the 325-seat parliament. The cross-sectarian Iraqiya bloc led by former prime minister Iyad Allawi won the most seats at 91 after gaining broad backing from minority Sunnis who dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein and who are hungry to regain influence after seven years of Shi'ite political supremacy. The results still need to be certified, a process that could yet take weeks. In the meantime, Maliki's bloc and Iraq's other main Shi'ite-dominated coalition, the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), have been inching toward a tie-up that could sideline Allawi, a secular Shi'ite. That could increase sectarian tensions if Sunnis feel aggrieved, at a time when the all-out sectarian conflict that followed the 2003 US-led invasion has faded and US troops are preparing to end combat operations and withdraw.
