Two years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, efforts to promote democracy in this war-ravaged country have proved unable to create a powerful and effective government.

The interim administration led by US-favored Shiite secular leader Iyad Allawi has not yielded results in curbing rampant insurgency since it assumed sovereignty from the occupation authority last June.

The only tangible achievement of Allawi's care-taker government is the landmark Jan. 30 elections, successfully held despite attempts to undermine the polls and derail the political process.

But Allawi's secular list gained far less than the list blessed by the most influential Shiite clergyman, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, thanks to his fatwa, or religious law, calling on people to take their religious duty to vote.

"Iraqis most trust their clerics, not the politicians, which is the major problem in the modern society," said Huda Neami, a political professor whose gathering took part in the elections.

The voters were surprised that they did not know most of the candidates, whose names were kept secret due to insecurity in the runup to the vote, until the polling results were announced.

More than seven weeks have passed without any signs of consensus on forming the government since the elections of the national assembly, a development could possibly trigger more violence that each party accuses another of standing behind the attacks or at least encouraging them.

Observers even fear that some parties or factions would use their militia to impose their opinions on others instead of turning to consultative dialogue.

Long-term political horse-trading between the winning alliances have stalled over Kurdish demands for the status of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and the future of their Peshmergah militia.

Some Iraqis compared the failure of moving ahead the political process with the US failure in finding the claimed weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

"Now that they (Americans) have not found any illegal weapons, they try to chant the slogan of liberating Iraq and spreading democracy to the country," said an Iraqi magazine's editor-in-chief who declined to be named.

With no end of the ongoing political wrangle in sight, "the system of democracy that the Americans brought to Iraq could do harm to our national integrity, even lead to a civil war," said Ibrahim Mohammed al-Baghdadi, a university professor.

"One of the most dangerous movements taking place in the name of democracy is that Iraq might be divide into regional territories under the pretext of federal system," said Baghdadi.

"It is clear that the problem is not in the democracy itself but in imposing it under the occupation, which has been rejected by many politicians," he said.

"The facts of history say that there cannot be any democracy without the democrats, and it seems that the people who really believe in democracy are not a big percentage in Iraq, like most of the third world countries," he stressed.

Abdul Salam al-Hashimi, a well-known writer, was concerned about the delay in negotiating a new cabinet.

"If the formation of the government takes two months, it would be impossible for the politicians to write the permanent constitution in the determined timetable," he said.

According to the interim constitution, the permanent draft should be completed no later than mid-August 2005, which means the Iraqi legislators have only four months to fulfill the task.

Any delay means a postponement of at least another six months of a referendum on the constitution and thus the next round of elections.

Iraq still in turbulence on 2nd anniversary of US-led invasion

Suicide bombing, attacks and assassinations throughout Iraq killed at least 45 people Sunday, leaving the country in turbulence on the second anniversary of the US-led invasion.

The US military said 24 insurgents were killed and seven others were wounded by the US forces during an exchange of fire on the outskirts of Baghdad on mid-Sunday. Six coalition soldiers were injured in the battle.

In the northern city of Mosul, a suicide bomber slipped into the office of General Walid Kachmoula, chief of the provincial anti-corruption department, and blew himself up inside, killing Kachmoula and two guards.

Hours after the bombing, attackers opened fire on the procession bearing Kachmoula's coffin when it was on the way to a cemetery, leaving two people dead and another 14 wounded.

At another site in Mosul, two people were found dead after being shot on their chest and head Sunday.

In Baquba, a town northeast of Baghdad, at least four policemen were killed and another two were wounded when a group of gunmen raided a police station.

A truck bomb blasting at the entrance of an Iraqi barrack in Baquba left 17 people injured. Four insurgents were killed in an ensuing firefight there.

In the northern oil center of Kirkuk, a roadside bomb hit a US patrol convoy, killing one US soldier and injured three others, the US military said.

In Baiji, a Turkish driver traveling in a convoy escorted by the US military was shot dead by attackers.

In Samarra, insurgents killed a policeman and wounded three others during an attack. The police found the bodies of an Iraqi army officer and his cousin in the same area.

In the southern city of Basra, reports said an official convoy headed to Baghdad was attacked with no details on the casualties. However, a roadside bomb exploded in the path of a police patrol killed one civilian in the city, the police said.

On the occasion of the second anniversary of the Iraq War, US President George W. Bush said Saturday that the war against Iraq has made America more secure and inspired movement toward democratic reforms across the Middle East.

"Because of our actions, freedom is taking root in Iraq, and the American people are more secure," said Bush.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also said Sunday that "it's a wonderful thing to see 25 million Iraqis liberated, to see their economy improve as it has been, to see their political process move towards democracy."

However, the continued resistance and attacks against the US-led coalition have never stopped since the war broke out two years ago.

According to the latest statistics, the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq since the start of the invasion has exceeded 1,510 whereas the Iraqi police and military death toll stands around 2,000.

The figures also show that more than 14,000 Iraqis have been killed in the war.

On the anniversary, 100,000 people marched in London to protest the war. Similar demonstrations were also staged across Europe.

Source: Xinhua