DAMASCUS, Syria, July 19 (UPI) -- An Iraqi government led by Iyad Allawi would award several key Cabinet positions to Shiite rivals, sources close to a leading Shiite coalition said.
Iraq is still without a new government more than four months after March 7 elections saw Allawi's secular Iraqiya slate score a narrow victory over the State of Law party led by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Maliki through a coalition with the Iraqi National Alliance slate was four seats shy of a ruling majority, though talks broke down over opposition to a second term for Maliki.
A source in the INA told London's pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that Iraqiya in a memo sent to rival parties outlined the terms of a new government.
The memo states that Allawi would lead a new government as prime minister with Hamam Hammoudi from Shiite political movement Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council as the head of the new parliament.
The source told the news agency that INA leaders were "studying these proposals." Members of the Sadrist movement, a group loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada Sadr, received a similar memo during weekend meeting in Damascus, the report added.
A spokesman for the Sadrist movement told the Voices of Iraq news agency that Allawi was to meet with Sadr in Damascus at the invitation of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Sadrists, who have opposed a second term for Maliki, took 40 seats running under the INA banner in the March 7 vote.
