The Iraqi National Assembly (parliament) chose on Wednesday Jalal al-Talabani, a veteran Kurdish leader, as the country's new president for the transitional period.

Along with him, incumbent Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, a Shiite, and the outgoing President Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni Arab, were named as the first and second vice presidents.

"The president is a Kurd, the former president becomes the vice president, and what do you want more for the democracy in Iraq?" commented Hachim al-Hassani, the newly appointed parliamentary speaker.

"I promise I will spare no effort in achieving the goals of the Iraqi people... and carrying out the Iraqi duties without sectarian or racial differences," said Talabani, shortly after he was elected.

The list of the three, called the presidential council, won about 90 percent of the vote at the parliamentary session, opened Wednesday morning inside the US-protected Green Zone.

Eighteen lawmakers were absent at the meeting, including the outgoing prime minister Iyad Allawi, but the reason for not attending the session was not clear.

The nomination ended the bartering between the main political blocs over the past weeks and marked a new step toward forming a care-taker government that leads Iraq until the end of the year.

Iraqi MPs expected that a government should now be in place by next week.

According to the interim constitution, the presidential council will have two weeks to designate a prime minister and his cabinet, which shall be put a trust vote in the legislature.