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BAGHDAD - Iraqis have been waiting for weeks, but nearly everyone missed the big event Thursday: the naming of the man who will lead the country's first democratically elected government in a half century.
Jalal Talabani, a prominent Kurd just sworn in as interim president, had been expected to announce at the end of his inauguration speech that the President's Council selected Shiite Arab leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari to be prime minister.
He didn't, and when the president walked off stage, lawmakers thought the ceremony was over. They began to file out, and television cameras and microphones were switched off.
But Talabani had just gone to consult with the other members of the President's Council - his two vice presidents.
Returning to the stage several minutes later, Talabani found a nearly empty legislative chamber and, without the microphones on, began shouting to the diminishing crowd that Jaafari was their new leader.
The blunder illustrated the often chaotic process of building a new Iraq and capped two months of wrangling over who would lead the administration.
While some Shiite leaders grumbled about "bad management," Jaafari wasn't upset, telling reporters after the session, "This day represents a democratic process and a step forward.
"I'm faced with a big responsibility, and I pray to God that everyone will work hand in hand and that their efforts will lead to progress and development," he added, speaking just two days short of the second anniversary of Baghdad's fall to U.S.-led forces.
The new government's main task will be to draft a permanent constitution and lay the groundwork for elections in December, although some worry that the two months of political wrangling taken up in forming the leadership hasn't left enough time.
Some Iraqis have expressed concern about Jaafari's close ties to the Islamic government in Iran and his work for the conservative Islamic Dawa Party, which has called for the implementation of Islamic law. But lawmakers didn't express any reservations Thursday.
Jaafari said women will play a bigger role in his government, and he promised to fight the violence of the insurgency.
Iraq's new leaders were longtime foes of Saddam Hussein, who watched a videotape of Talabani's election Wednesday but was not expected to be shown Thursday's ceremony.
Jaafari spent more than two decades in exile helping to lead anti-Hussein opposition forces among Shiite Arabs, while Talabani was one of the most influential leaders in the resistance of ethnic Kurds to Hussein as well as Arab domination.
Lawmakers have appointed Sunni Arabs to several top posts in an effort to build a broad-based government, but prominent Sunni Arab groups have distanced themselves from the new administration.
Jaafari has a month to name his Cabinet, clearing the way for the new government to begin drafting a permanent constitution before an Aug. 15 deadline. If the constitution is approved in an October referendum, elections for a permanent government are to be held in December.
Parliament Speaker Hajim al-Hassani, a Sunni Arab, urged Iraq's new leaders to begin immediately. "Your people are looking at you and waiting," he said. "So, work!"
In violence Thursday, armed men blew up Shiite Muslims' al-Khudir shrine in the Latifiya area, 35 miles south of Baghdad, Babil police spokesman Muthana Khalid said.
Insurgents fired rockets into Fallujah, the restive city in Anbar province, the U.S. military said. It said Marines returned fire but did not immediately know if the rockets caused any damage.
In the northern city of Mosul, a bomb attack on an Iraqi army patrol killed three soldiers and wounded 20, said Maj. Gen. Khalil Ahmed al-Obeidi, the Iraqi commander in Mosul. Seven assailants were captured, he said.