BAGHDAD, April 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraqi lawmakers were stillhaggling over some key posts of the transitional government on Tuesday despite reports saying a draft lineup has been concluded.

    The Iraqia TV quoted unnamed sources on Tuesday as saying that Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari, charged with the task of forming the government, has unveiled a draft list and presented it to the presidential council.

    The final makeup could be made public as early as Wednesday against the backdrop of repeated urges by the US administrationthat asked the Iraqi leaders to put aside differences and end the stalemate.

    The cabinet to be based on a broad coalition of all Iraqi ethnic and religious communities has to be approved by President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies before it is put to a vote in the National Assembly (parliament).

    Talabani has said he will not use his veto, but it remained unknown if Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni leader and one of the two deputy presidents, will follow suit.

    Under the umbrella group of the National Dialogue Council, agroup of Sunni Arab parties including that led by Yawar held a last-minute meeting before Jaafari's proposal, demanding at least seven ministries plus one deputy premiership.

    "We have sent our list to Jaafari and even if he agrees, we have to see the nature of the ministries as well as the quantities,"said Tareq al-Hashimi, a major Sunni negotiator.

    Hashimi's Islamic Party, the largest Sunni Arab political party,was one of the many Sunni groups that boycotted the parliamentaryelections on Jan. 30.

    Hashimi said the National Dialogue Council wanted two maingovernment posts -- the oil ministry and the defense ministry, but did not reveal who might take which post.

    "It is possible there is no place for Sunni Arabs in the government, but it will be harmful if Sunnis don't participate in the political process," he told Xinhua.

    Mishaan al-Jubury, a Sunni MP, said the Sunni group had promised outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi that the Sunnis will withdraw their list if Allawi's men do not take part in the government. But the claim was denied by Hashimi.

    Reports said Jaafari has given up efforts to persuade Allawi, a secular Shiite favored by Washington, to join the government. Disputes also surfaced within the Shiite alliance, a dominant bloc in the parliament, as an ally with the alliance declined to give up the portfolio of oil ministry.

    "Some in the alliance said our candidate for the oil minister is not qualified, but it is a lie and he has considerable experience when he served in the south oil company," said Sheikh Mathem Talib,a member from the Hezb al-Fadeela party.

    He held Jaafari responsible for the fray in fielding the candidate for the oil minister, noting that "he should choose the candidate who can serve the Iraqi people."

    To make things more complex, three Sunni Arab lawmakers allied with the Shiite alliance withdrew from it on Tuesday.

   "When we joined the alliance, we presumed that they would treat us on national basis and not sectarian basis," said Mudhar Shawkat,member of the Shiite-sponsored United Iraqi Alliance (UIA). "Later on, we discovered the Shiite brothers looked at the bloconly as a Shiite one, not a national one, and therefore, Sheikh Fawaz al-Jarba, Adnan al-Nuaimy and I decided to withdraw from the bloc," he told reporters.

    He said Iraq's Sunni Arabs have been marginalized in the UIA.Shawkat is a deputy of the National Congress Party headed by the pro-Western former banker Ahmed al-Chalabi.

    Muhamed Shihab al-Dulaimy, a Sunni politician from the National Dialogue Council, told Xinhua that Sunni tribal leader Fawaz al-Jarba had withdrawn from the Shiite bloc and decided to join the Sunni front.

    "I have been informed of it because the Shiites do not give enough rights for the Sunnis in the country's political process,"Dulaimy said.

    The move further revealed profound disputes that remained within Iraq's political parties after nearly three months of horse-trading talks over the makeup of the cabinet. Enditem