Iraqi PM-designate calls on parliament to approve new cabinet

Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi said Wednesday he has put together a cabinet of political independents and called on parliament to hold an extraordinary session next week to grant it a vote of confidence.

Allawi said in a televised speech that if his government wins a confidence vote, its first act would be to investigate the killing of protesters and bring the perpetrators to justice.

He also promised to hold an early election free from "the influence of money, weapons, and foreign interference" and called on protesters to give his government a chance in spite of a "crisis of confidence in everything related to politics" that he blamed on the failures of his predecessors.