Iraq?s new parliament met for the first time on Wednesday more than six weeks after it was elected in historic polls, but the country is still without a government as rival blocs bicker over a coalition deal.Several streets in Baghdad were closed and traffic restricted to try to thwart insurgent attacks, but guerrillas fired a rocket or mortar barrage into the fortified Green Zone compound before the meeting began.

In the Convention Center where the meeting is taking place, windows rattled and lights flickered as sirens wailed outside.The Shi?ite Islamist alliance that won 140 seats in the 275-member National Assembly and the Kurdish coalition that came second with 75 seats are deadlocked in negotiations over a government that have dragged on for weeks.There is tentative agreement that Ibrahim Jaafari of the Shi?ite Dawa party will be prime minister and Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani will be president, with a Sunni Arab candidate probably being offered the job of parliament speaker.

But talks have stalled over Kurdish demands to expand their northern autonomous zone to include the strategic oil city of Kirkuk and the fate of the Kurdish peshmerga militias, which Shi?ites want to be absorbed in Iraq?s official security forces. The Kurds also want guarantees Iraq will remain secular.

<B>Arguments of the deaf</B>

Politicians had hoped that an agreement would have been reached by Wednesday?s parliament meeting. Some officials said a deal could be struck within the next few days. ?We expect to sign a declaration in the next few days on general principles that include dealing with the city of Kirkuk according to the interim constitution,? said Mohammad Bahr al-Uloum, a member of the majority Shi?ite bloc.

But another Shi?ite official was less optimistic, describing recent political bargaining as ?arguments of the deaf.?Current Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, whose bloc came third in the polls, will remain caretaker leader until a deal is agreed.According to Iraq?s interim constitution, the National Assembly must agree on a president and two vice presidents by a two-thirds majority. These officials will then appoint a prime minister. This means there must be agreement between two-thirds of the 275 assembly members on the shape of the government.

The delay in forming a government has angered many Iraqis, after more than eight million people defied suicide bombers and mortar attacks to vote in the Jan. 30 elections.Some Iraqis say the political deadlock is playing into the hands of insurgents determined to wreck the political process. Yesterday, a suicide car bomb exploded at an Iraqi army checkpoint in the town of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, killing three Iraqi soldiers and wounding eight people, police said.

The elections were a cornerstone of US plans to hand more responsibility to Iraqi politicians and security forces so foreign troops can eventually leave. But many US allies are cutting troop numbers faster than Washington had hoped.Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, one of the staunchest allies of President Bush, said Rome would start to pull troops out of Iraq in September.Berlusconi said he was also in talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair about a total exit strategy from Iraq, adding the people in both countries ? where the 2003 US-led invasion was unpopular ? wanted their troops to return home.

Relations between Rome and Washington were strained this month when US troops fired on a car that was taking a freed Italian hostage to the airport. The hostage, journalist Giuliana Sgrena, was wounded and Italian secret agent Nicola Calipari was killed.

The US army said the shooting was a tragic accident.Several countries are in the process of pulling troops out of Iraq. Poland, another key US ally, says Poland, another important European ally, has announced it will withdraw hundreds of troops from July and aims to be out of Iraq by 2006. The Netherlands and Ukraine are also withdrawing their troops.

<B>KHALED YACOUB OWEIS</B>