Baghdad, Iraq ? Under heavy U.S. pressure to end the crippling political stalemate, Iraq’s prime minister-designate on Tuesday proposed appointing a broad-based 36-member Cabinet — including a deputy premier from each of Iraq’s main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions.

But haggling continued over which individuals should fill the seats, adding to the worries of Iraqis, many of whom feel months of wrangling over the new government has emboldened insurgents to step up deadly attacks on U.S. and Iraqi security forces.

Lawmakers allied with the premier said that in addition to the prime minister and three deputies, the Cabinet would have 17 Shiite Arab ministers, eight Kurds, six Sunni Arabs and one Christian, fulfilling promises by leaders of the Shiite majority to share power among ethnic and religious groups. Officials said at least two ministers are women.

Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari discussed his proposal with President Jalal Talabani on Tuesday, the premier’s spokesman, Abdul Razak al-Kadhimi, said. But some lawmakers later said the meeting didn’t take place. It was not possible to reconcile the conflicting reports.

Talabani’s three-member presidential council must sign off on the list before it is submitted to the 275-member National Assembly for a vote. Talabani already indicated he would not exercise his veto, and lawmakers said a vote could take place as soon as today.

However, such predictions have repeatedly proved false since Cabinet negotiations began after the parliamentary elections Jan. 30.

Zarqawi escapes

In Washington, a senior U.S. military official said Tuesday that U.S. forces in Iraq believed they just missed capturing most-wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a February raid that netted two of his associates. U.S. forces also recovered a computer belonging to Zarqawi.

Iraqi officials announced the Feb. 20 raid at the time but did not say Zarqawi was the target.

At a Pentagon news conference, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would only say, “we were close,” but declined to elaborate, citing concerns about disclosing operational details.

“I think in general the intelligence is getting better. Having said that, we still don’t have Zarqawi,” Myers said.

Zarqawi, who has a $25 million bounty on his head, is believed to have orchestrated a relentless wave of bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and beheadings across Iraq.

Troops with a covert military unit were reportedly in place to arrest him as he was on his way to Ramadi, but he caught wind of them, ABC News reported late Monday, citing an unidentified senior military official.

The official said that just before the meeting was scheduled, a car was pulled over as it approached a checkpoint. A pickup truck trailing the car then turned and headed in the opposite direction.

Officials believe Zarqawi was in the fleeing truck, but when U.S. teams pulled the vehicle over several miles later, he was not inside, ABC reported. The official told the network that Zarqawi apparently jumped out of the vehicle when it passed beneath an overpass and hid there before escaping.

Inside the truck, the official told ABC, U.S. troops found Zarqawi’s computer and about $104,000.