Rocket attacks, blasts and the discovery of several bodies, apparently executed, around Iraq Sunday underscored the challenges facing the prime minister-designate as he tries to form a government.

A rocket attack on a Baghdad parking lot killed at least seven people, the Ministry of Defence said.
 
Earlier, officials had described that as a mortar attack near the ministry, in the fortified Green Zone where Shi'ite leader Jawad al-Maliki was asked in parliament on Saturday to form the country's first full-term post-war government.

A roadside bomb killed three US soldiers northwest of Baghdad and the bodies of sixth youths, with bullet wounds to the head, were found in a Sunni area of the capital.

Maliki has a month to form a cabinet sharing power among Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds and his choices for key posts, such as interior minister, are seen as critical to uniting Iraqis, winning their trust and ending sectarian bloodshed.

But on the streets, Iraqis say choosing a prime minister and government is just the first step on a long road to peace and the reaction to the elevation of Maliki, a Shi'ite, appeared often split along sectarian lines.

"Overcoming this impasse of forming the government doesn't mean solving all the political crises in Iraq," said Saleem al-Jubouri, a professor at Baquba's Diyala University. "Maliki has tough issues to deal with occupation, regional intervention, armed militias and illegal detention centers."

(China Daily April 24, 2006)