Tough-talking Shi'ite Jawad Al Maliki was tasked to form a coalition government yesterday when Iraqi leaders ended four months of political paralysis and vowed to halt sectarian strife and avert any slide to civil war. "We are going to form a family that will not be based on sectarian or ethnic backgrounds," Maliki told reporters, seeking to shake off a hardline Shi'ite image and present himself as a man capable of uniting Shi'ite, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

But in his first policy speech, Maliki called for Shiite militias to be merged with US-trained security forces - an explosive issue in the country because militias are tied to political parties and operate along religious lines.

"Arms should be in the hands of the government. There is a law that calls for the merging of militias with the armed forces," said Maliki, nominated by the ruling Shi'ite Alliance, the largest bloc in parliament after December elections.

The United States hopes a national unity government will foster stability in Iraq.

"This is a good day for Iraq. It is an important day for Iraq," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Washington, adding Maliki was someone the US could work with.

Maliki, who has 30 days to present his cabinet to parliament, will have to tackle an insurgency that draws support from the Sunni community.

The Shi'ite Alliance chose Maliki after its original candidate, interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Al Jaafari, bowed out to end the stalemate. Other parties opposed Jaafari.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani formally designated Maliki as prime minister after a breakthrough in negotiations on Friday.

Earlier, parliament re-elected Talabani as president.

Sunni Islamist Mahmoud Al Mashhadani was elected as parliamentary speaker. A former medical officer in Saddam's army, he was jailed for joining outlawed Islamist groups.

Appointing officials overseeing powerful ministries, including the interior, defence and oil portfolios, will test Maliki's ability as a deal-maker.

Sunni leaders have accused the Shi'ite-run Interior Ministry of condoning death squads targeting Sunnis so there may be a protracted battle over that portfolio. Shi'ites deny the charge.

In another day of violence, a roadside bomb killed four US soldiers in Iraq yesterday and the bodies of 12 Iraqis who apparently were tortured and killed in captivity were discovered by police, most of them on the streets of Baghdad.

US and Iraqi forces also fought an hour-long gunbattle with insurgents in Ramadi, a centre of Iraq's Sunni-dominated insurgency, and four militants were killed and two Iraqi soldiers wounded, American officials said.

Elsewhere, suspected insurgents also set off two bombs in a public market in northern Iraq, the second one timed to hit emergency crews arriving at the scene, and the blasts killed at least two Iraqis and wounded 17, police said.

The four US soldiers were conducting a combat patrol south of the capital when the roadside bomb exploded and killed them. The deaths raised to 2,387 the number of US military members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.

In the market attack, the fist bomb exploded at 7.30am in the middle Muqdadiyah, a town about 90km north of Baghdad, causing a large fire, police in Diyala province said.

When fire engines arrived, the second bomb went off, killing a firefighter and a civilian, and wounding 17 civilians.

PHOTO CAPTION

Iraqi parliament delegates follow proceedings as members of the new parliament are sworn in. (AFP)