Iraq?s Parliament approved ministers for six contested government posts yesterday, ending months of stalemate that hampered efforts to tackle escalating insurgent violence which killed more than 300 people in 10 days.

Prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari said he may appoint one more official to his government ? a fourth deputy prime minister, chosen from among the women in parliament ? but otherwise the cabinet was finally complete more than three months after millions of Iraqis voted in the Jan. 30 elections.

Jaafari said the cabinet would now press ahead with efforts to defeat the insurgency. ?We will take all necessary steps to fight this monstrous phenomenon?, he said.

Insurgent violence escalated over the past 10 days. More than 300 people were killed in suicide attacks and bombings that defied government predictions the insurgency was crumbling.

Gunmen assassinated senior transport ministry official Zobaa Yassin as he drove to work yesterday, police said.

Saadoun al-Dulaimi, a Sunni Arab former military officer with tribal ties to Iraq?s rebellious western Anbar province, was given the key defence portfolio. The government hopes that putting a Sunni Arab in the post will help undermine the insurgency that is being mainly fought by Sunni guerrillas.

Strong Sunni presence

A respected Shi?ite official, Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, was named oil minister, an important post in the oil-rich nation.

?Our new motto in the ministry is fight corruption and boost production?, Bahr al-Uloum told a news conference. Sunni Arabs were given the human rights ministry and the industry ministry, and a Sunni Arab deputy prime minister was named to join Shi?ite and Kurdish deputies already appointed.

This gives Sunni Arabs a strong cabinet presence despite the fact that they have minimal influence in parliament with only 17 of the assembly?s 275 seats.

The Sunni Arab minority dominated Iraq during Saddam Hussein?s rule but was sidelined after the elections, with most Sunni Arabs staying away from the polls due to calls for a boycott and fears of insurgent violence.

Iraq?s Shi?ite majority and Kurds voted in large numbers, eager to win greater political clout after decades of oppression by Saddam, and became the new dominant players in Iraq.

But Shi?ite and Kurdish leaders need to include Sunni Arabs in the political process to undermine support for the insurgency, and to ensure that Sunni Arabs do not veto the country?s new Constitution in a referendum later this year.

More deadly car bombs

Bickering among political blocs delayed the formation of a cabinet for months, infuriating many Iraqis who voted in the elections despite threats and bomb attacks on polling stations.

A partial cabinet was sworn in last Tuesday but several posts remained vacant, largely because of disagreements over which candidate should run ministries earmarked for Sunni Arabs.

Several candidates for defence minister were rejected by Shi?ites because of past ties to Saddam.

On Saturday, al Qaeda?s network in Iraq hit a foreign security convoy with a car bomb in the heart of Baghdad, killing at least 22 people including two Americans. Dozens were wounded, including several pupils at a nearby girls? school.

The previous day, a suicide car bomb at a vegetable market in Suwayra, south of Baghdad, killed 31 people, and another suicide bomber blew up his vehicle beside a police minibus in Saddam?s hometown of Tikrit, killing at least nine policemen.

The US military said it had struck back against insurgents in the western town of Qaim on the Syrian border, killing six and capturing 54 in a raid yesterday.

It said fighters loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al Qaeda leader in Iraq, were active in the area. ?Multiple sources of intelligence indicate that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi?s key lieutenants, suicide bombers and a large population of foreign fighters are located in the region?, a military statement said. ?Simultaneous operations conducted early this morning against identified locations resulted in killing six and capturing 54 terrorists. Coalition forces also destroyed car bombs, bomb-making material and two buildings that contained large weapons caches.?

Mussab AL-KHAIRALLA, Waleed IBRAHIM ABD Michael GEORGY