Financial Times (UK): Iraq's national reconciliation initiative has paved the way for government contacts with insurgents and should be seen as only a first step towards a political solution to the conflict, according to Iraq's vice-president. Adel Abdel-Mehdi, senior Shia official and vice-president in the new government, told the Financial Times that other measures would follow the plan unveiled last Sunday and deemed by many analysts to be vague and incomplete. In an interview during a visit to London, Mr Abdel-Mehdi said contacts with insurgents had been going on for some time but the reconciliation plan had now made dialogue an official policy. He also left the door open to a broadening of an am-nesty offer after Nuri al-Maliki, the prime minister, this week insisted it would exclude anyone who had killed American troops or Iraqis. [...]

AP: Analysis: Iraq PM Challenged by Insurgency

IranMania: According to an AFP report, Iran will next month host a conference on security in Iraq gathering representatives from Iraq's neighbours, Egypt, the Arab League and Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said.

AP: A top government official said Friday that Iraq has an agreement to take over security responsibilities from foreign forces in southern Iraq this month. Deputy Prime Minister Salam Zikam Ali al-Zubaie was responding to a Japanese news report that British, Australian and Japanese troops will transfer security responsibilities in southern Iraq to Iraqi authorities next week, and soon withdraw from the area. "There is an agreement to take over the security responsibilities from the British, Australian and Japanese forces in southern Iraq during this month," al-Zubaie said. "There is such a plan and such news is not based on nothing. We hope that the Iraqi security forces will live up to their duties there. It is the dream of all Iraqis that our forces will handle security issues all over Iraq." The Kyodo News agency, citing people close to the coalition forces, reported that British officials told their counterparts in the other two countries last week that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will announce the transfer of security authority in southern Iraq on Tuesday. Officials in the Iraqi prime minister's media office said they could not confirm or deny the report. [...]

A similar story to the AP one (just posted) is currently on the CNN front page: PM: Iraqi troops battle ready in 2007.

AP update: Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Wednesday he believed Iraqi forces were capable of taking over security around the country within 18 months, but he did not mention a timetable for U.S.-led coalition forces to leave. [...] "Our forces are capable of taking over the security in all Iraqi provinces within a year-and-a-half," al-Maliki said in a written statement, in which he acknowledged that security forces needed more recruits, training and equipment. His comments came as Sunni Arab and Shiite political leaders expressed hope that compromise candidates would be found to head the defense and interior ministries by Saturday. [...]

Good overview of positive developments in Iraq: The Real Iraq

AP's coverage of today's cabinet appointments.

CNN: Iraq's first permanent government since the fall of Saddam Hussein was approved by parliament and sworn in on Saturday, despite the failure to fill two key ministry posts because of political disputes. "The main problem now is security, and they could not appoint defense and interior [ministers]," said prominent Sunni Muslim politician Saleh al-Mutlag, who walked out of the proceedings. "This session is illegal," al-Mutlag said. "They added seven ministries without getting approval." Al-Mutlag said he and others had asked the government to wait longer to try to fill the critical posts. Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki said he would temporarily run the Interior Ministry, and he made a temporary appointment to the Defense Ministry -- Salam al-Zobaie, a Sunni politician who also had been designated as a deputy prime minister. There are 37 Cabinet posts in all and parliamentary terms last four years. [...]

BBC News (largely repeating earlier update): Iraq's PM-designate Nouri Maliki says the make-up of the cabinet has been finalised but the posts of interior and defence minister will be filled later. Mr Maliki will present the cabinet for approval by parliament on Saturday. Shias, Sunni Arabs and Kurds have been in dispute over the make-up of the unity government since elections in December, causing a power vacuum. US and Iraqi officials have said the unity government is the country's best chance avoiding a full sectarian war. The Shia-led United Iraqi Alliance won most seats in parliament in Iraq's first full elections, held last December. [...]

AP: The incoming Iraqi prime minister said Friday he had failed to reach a deal with coalition partners on naming defense or interior ministers, but he still would inaugurate his Cabinet on Saturday.

Nouri al-Maliki said after meeting with officials of other political coalitions and parties that a decision had been made on the rest of the Cabinet "except for defense and interior ministries," and he would present it Saturday for approval to the 275-member parliament — known as the council of representatives. "Both will be acting (temporary) ministers until we will choose the best ministers for those posts," he said.

AP update:

On Saturday, legislators plan to swear in a new prime minister and Cabinet, completing a democratic transition that began in December with the election of its parliament. A main goal of the new government will be to restore security in Iraq, where sectarian violence and attacks by insurgents and militias have killed many people and led thousands of Iraqi families to flee their homes. The Bush administration hopes that full-scale democracy can unite Iraq's complex mix of Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds, reduce public support for insurgent groups and militias, and make it possible to begin withdrawing U.S. troops sometime this year. In a speech in Baghdad on Thursday night, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad praised Iraq's outgoing prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, and said the inauguration will be a "historic step in Iraq's transition from dictatorship to democracy."