More news from the 'new' Iraq

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani On Wednesday said at least 1,091 people had been killed last month in sectarian violence in Baghdad alone, as a much anticipated Parliamentary session produced little result.

Urging quick efforts to quell the raging Shiite-Sunni communal bloodshed, Talabani said: "We received a report from the morgue about the deaths in Baghdad that 1,091 people were killed between April 1 and 30."

"We are shocked and angry at the daily reports of unidentified bodies being discovered and of people killed on the basis of their identity," Talabani was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his office.

The Parliamentary session ended following a reading out of new internal regulations with no mention of an anticipated announcement of the country's new Cabinet.

Parliament will reconvene on Sunday.

Talabani said the overall number of people killed in the violence would be "alarming if we include the number of bodies still missing across Iraq."

"I urge all political parties and security forces to quickly move to quell this bleeding from crimes aimed to create doubts between sons of Iraq and disrupt national unity," he added.

Talabani also said that the current "institutional weakness", a lack of government, was "benefiting the terrorists."

Nearly five months since the December elections for the country's first full-term post-Saddam Parliament, Iraq is still without a government due to wrangling between leaders over ministerial berths.