A car bomber killed seven people and wounded nine Monday near a crowd of Shi'ite pilgrims travelling south of Baghdad to an annual religious ceremony that officials feared would draw attacks.

In Baghdad, political leaders met again to try to agree on cabinet posts two months after the election.

Iraq's National Assembly is due to meet for its second session Tuesday and may unveil some senior positions but not the full cabinet.

Police in Iskandariya, south of Baghdad, said the car bomber struck on a road leading towards Kerbala, a sacred Shi'ite city where this week hundreds of thousands of pilgrims will mark Arbain, an annual mourning ceremony.

Meanwhile, Iraq's interim President Ghazi al-Yawar has declined a nomination to become the speaker of the new Iraqi parliament, dealing a blow to efforts to end a political crisis in the country.

An aide to Yawar declined to disclose the reason behind the decision. Yawar is a Sunni Arab, and some Sunni Arab politicians have been insisting that they should keep the presidency in the next government.

Shi'ites and Kurds have been trying to persuade Yawar to be speaker.

The speaker role, expected to be instrumental in writing a new constitution, could still go to another Sunni candidate, Fawaz al-Jarba, a senior officer in the former Iraqi army.

Jarba is among the few Sunnis on the Shi'ite list which won the election, which makes some Sunni Arabs wary of him.

(China Daily March 29, 2005)