Shia-Kurdish Talks to Form Iraq Government Fail

BAGHDAD/ARBIL (Reuters) - Talks between Kurdish leaders and a Shi'ite bloc to form the next Iraqi government have collapsed three days before the country's first fully elected parliament meets, senior politicians said on Sunday.

Between them the two groups have the two-thirds majority needed to form the government and their failure to reach a deal could leave Iraq in political limbo and further delay efforts to improve security and rebuild the country.

Ahmad Chalabi, a leading member of the Shi'ite bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, returned empty-handed on Saturday from a trip to Iraqi Kurdistan to try and save the proposed Kurdish-Shi'ite alliance.

"The meetings have collapsed. There was no deal," an aide to Chalabi told Reuters.

Kurdish politicians went further, saying the Shi'ite alliance was trying to blame them for the crisis that has paralyzed decision-making in a country plagued by guerrilla bombings and starved of investment needed for rebuilding.

"They want to lay the responsibility for the political equation solely on the Kurdish side," interim Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a Kurd, told al-Arabiya television.