Iraq agrees on new government after 8-month impasse

BAGHDAD — Iraq's main factions have agreed on the top three political posts, ending an eight-month deadlock that had raised the specter of renewed sectarian violence, Kurdish regional president Masoud Barzani said on Thursday.

Barzani said incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led alliance would get the prime minister post, guaranteeing him a second term, while minority Kurds would keep the presidency.

Former premier Iyad Allawi's Sunni-backed Iraqiya faction would get the speaker's post of parliament, while Allawi himself would head a new council of strategic policies, he said.

The inclusion of Iraqiya in what Barzani called a "national partnership" government may help stop a return to the factional fighting that killed tens of thousands following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.