Iraq’s new government should be in place by mid-December, putting an end to a months-long political impasse, Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki said on Saturday.

Maliki’s remarks came two days after he was awarded a second term in the top job by President Jalal Talabani and given 30 days to form a cabinet, following a power-sharing deal that was agreed earlier this month.

“My timetable is, mid-December I can form a government,” he told reporters at a news conference in Baghdad.

“Until now, there has been no agreement between the blocs about the ministerial portfolios.”

He added, “The fears of delay of forming the government are legitimate, because if the cabinet is not formed within the time limit, God only knows what will happen and what direction the country will go in.”

The re-selection of Talabani, a Kurd, and Maliki, a Shiite, to their posts and the naming of a Sunni Arab as speaker of parliament came after a power-sharing pact was agreed on 10th November.

It also established a new statutory body to oversee security as a sop to ex-premier Iyad Allawi, who had held out for months to regain the top job after his Iraqiya bloc narrowly won the most seats in the 7th March election.

The support of Iraqiya, which garnered most of its seats in Sunni areas of the predominantly Shiite country, is widely seen as vital to preventing a resurgence of inter-confessional violence.

The Sunni minority which dominated Saddam Hussein’s regime was the bedrock of the anti-US insurgency after the 2003 invasion.

Despite being lauded by international leaders including US President Barack Obama, the power-sharing pact has looked fragile ever since.