The Iraqi parliament has chosen Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as the country's new interim president.

Shia Adil Abd al-Mahdi and current interim President Ghazi al-Yawir, a Sunni Arab, were chosen as Talabani's two vice-presidents.

After weeks of negotiations, the three were the only candidates and received a total of 227 votes. Thirty ballots were left blank.

Talabani said he would work to secure his troubled nation, and he called on neighbouring countries to help in the fight by preventing foreign fighters from crossing into Iraq.

US pullout

The interim National Assembly must write a permanent constitution by 15 August.

The constitution, along with elections for a permanent government scheduled for December, are all central parts of the US government's eventual pullout.

Iraqi journalist Walid al-Zubaydi, commenting to Aljazeera, said that Iraqis endured a lot before the political process started.

He said the problem was not in electing a president but in the writing of the constitution and the credibility of the elections.

If Iraq's move into a new constitutional phase is further delayed, al-Zubaydi said, the presence of occupation forces in Iraq could be prolonged.

Al-Zubaydi also said there was disagreement over the credibility of the political process because elections were held under the presence of occupying forces.

"Accordingly, the new stage and the role of the new government is to surmount such difficulties and transfer Iraq to a new stage in which the political work should be aimed at building the state of Iraq," al-Zubaydi said.

On Thursday, lawmakers plan to name Shia leader Ibrahim al-Jafari prime minister. Lawmakers have also started discussions on candidates to serve in the cabinet.

In related news, the US military said in a statement on Wednesday that a Task Force Baghdad soldier was killed a day earlier when his patrol was hit by a bomb.

PHOTO CAPTION

Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, speaks with journalists during a press conference in Tehran in this October 31, 2002 file photo. (Reuters)