End the bickering, weary Iraqis tell politicians

BAGHDAD, Apr 21 (Reuters) Politicians are wrangling over the formation of Iraq's new government, but Iraqis who defied car bombs and shootings to vote in the December polls have one message for them: stop the bickering and get down to business.

''This is political mockery,'' said an indignant Um Ali, a housewife in her 30s in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf.

''Political blocs are fighting for senior ruling chairs and are not making concessions. They should know that people are paying the price and that the government does not depend on one figure.'' She was among a dozen Iraqis across the sectarian and ethnic divides who spoke to Reuters.

Under intense US and domestic pressure, Iraq's Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni Arab leaders are struggling to form a government of national unity seen as the best hope to avert a sectarian civil war.

In a bid to end the impasse, the Shi'ite Alliance today said it would offer Kurds and Sunnis a new candidate for prime minister after its first choice, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, dropped his insistence on keeping the job in the face of mounting opposition.

Iraqis fed up with daily bloodshed and poor basic services such as running water and electricity more than three years after US forces invaded, dismissed politicians' claims that this marked a breakthrough.

''After all this unexplained delay the new government will be born dead and all politicians have proved they are running after posts without considering the ordeals of Iraqi people,'' said Ahmed al-Khayat, a 38-year-old tailor in the religiously mixed city of Baquba.

Adil Abdulamir, a 40-year-old university professor also from Baquba, said the US-backed political process was a flop.

''The delay in forming the government proves that the democratic experience failed in Iraq. Many politicians are actually not fit for any post and lack political experience.'' Said Jawad Kathum, a 50-year-old shop-owner in the southern city of Basra: ''I feel we were misled when we voted for those who are fighting each other to gain posts forgetting the bloodshed of Iraqis.'' ''GONE WITH THE WIND'' Iraqi politicians, drawn from parties formed along Iraq's religious and ethnic lines, promised to deliver stability and unity after the December 15 elections, in which Iraqis turned out in large numbers to vote in the first polls for a full-term government since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

''How much time do these Iraqi politicians need to form a government? It's been more than four months since the election.

The politicians made us hear all sorts of promises, which are now gone with the wind,'' said Mohammed Jassim, a 40-year-old teacher in the northern city of Kirkuk.

''Iraqis now mistrust them all,'' said Jassim.

Washington, keen to see some stability in Iraq to allow it to begin withdrawing troops, has blamed the political vacuum for fuelling insurgency violence. Some Iraqis agreed with that claim.

''Doctors, engineers, professors and journalists have become an easy target for militants. Who is interested in emptying this country of intellectuals?'' asked Itaab Ahmed, a 35-year-old engineer in Kirkuk.

''The government is doing nothing about it.'' REUTERS OM RAI2151