The Iraqi parliament held another session Sunday with Prime Minister designate Nouri al-Maliki again failing to present his new cabinet.
Squabbling between Shi'ite, Sunni, and Kurdish politicians over who should control the powerful oil, defense, and interior ministries is holding up formation of a new government.
A Shi'ite political party and a Sunni Arab bloc both threatened to drop out of any future government if they are not satisfied with the cabinet list.
Mr. al-Maliki has just one more week to present his cabinet before President Jalal Talabani has the right to nominate another prime minister.
The United States has said a unified Iraqi government is essential towards ending sectarian violence and insurgent attacks, which killed at least 33 people across Iraq Sunday.
The U.S. military says suicide car bombs killed 28 people near Baghdad, including two American soldiers near a U.S. military base.
A car bomb also killed two Iraqis in Mosul and a roadside bomb in Udaim killed three bodyguards assigned to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
Iraqi authorities also found the bodies of five blindfolded men with gunshot wounds near Karbala.
And the British Defense Ministry announced Sunday that two British soldiers were killed late Saturday in a roadside bomb in the southern city of Basra.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.