New Iraqi cabinet on hold

An Iraqi policeman, guarding the Pakistani embassy in Baghdad, stops a donkey-drawn cart near the embassy premises Monday. Malik Mohammad Javed, a non-diplomatic embassy employee held by kidnappers in Iraq was released Sunday night and in good health despite his two weeks in captivity, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said. PHOTO: AFP

Insurgents, meanwhile, launc-hed another attack on Iraq's oil facilities, using explosives to set fire to oil pumps used for domestic supplies near Kirkuk, an official at Northern Oil Company said on condition of anonymity. No injuries were immediately reported.

In Islamabad, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said that a kidnapped Pakistani embassy employee was released Sunday and in good health despite his two weeks in captivity.

"Malik Mohammad Javed has been released, he is hail and hearty," Aziz said during a live telecast. "We are thankful to the countries who helped in his release," the premier said, without naming any nation.

Javed, 45, disappeared April 9 when he went for evening prayers at a Baghdad mosque. A previously unknown group calling itself the Omar bin Khattab group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.

Javed worked as a non-diplom-atic official at Pakistan's embassy in Baghdad for the last seven years while his wife, four daughters and two sons lived in Islamabad.

"In principle we were to have announced the new government today, but last minutes details are preventing this," said Jawad Maliki, the number two in Shia Dawa party led by prime minister-designate Ibrahim Jaafari.

"Maybe the government will be announced tomorrow," he told reporters.

Senior officials had earlier suggested Jaafari could unveil a cabinet based on a broad coalition of Shias, Sunnis and Kurds.

Negotiations on achieving a broad-based coalition have been going on for 12 weeks since the January 30 general elections won by the majority Shias and the Kurds.

On Sunday, an emboldened Iraqi insurgency staged carefully coordinated dual bombings in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit and a Shia neighbourhood in western Baghdad, killing and wounding dozens of Iraqi police and civilians.

Also, the US military said it had detained four more suspects in the downing of a civilian Mi-8 helicopter Thursday. All 11 passengers and crew were killed, including a survivor gunned down by insurgents. Ten suspects have been apprehended in all, the military said.