Baghdad ? America’s No. 2 diplomat in Iraq predicted progress by fall on bringing together Iraq’s feuding factions as violence claimed more lives Wednesday, including 14 people killed in a late night car bombing near a Shiite shrine in the capital.

In all, at least 60 Iraqis were killed or found dead across the country, most of them in the Baghdad area, according to police reports.

U.S. officials have been pressing the Iraqis to enact a series of laws designed to bring together the country’s warring factions, curb the violence and arrest the slide in support for the U.S. mission among the American people and Congress.

During a news conference Wednesday, the second-ranking U.S. diplomat in Iraq said he was hopeful that the Iraqis would make progress on “some” legislation by September. That’s when Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker are to submit a report on prospects for ending the violence.

“We’re in a very significant period of political turmoil. … But we do expect Iraqis to work through these issues,” U.S. diplomat Daniel Speckhard told reporters. “My expectations are still that they’ll rise to the challenge of producing some key legislation by September.”

Speckhard said much work has been done in Iraq’s parliament on a U.S.-backed law that would regulate the oil industry and distribute revenues among all the country’s ethnic and sectarian groups. Other “benchmark” bills would amend the constitution, allow many former members of Saddam’s Baath party to get back government jobs and arrange new elections for provincial posts.

All those measures have stalled because of political divisions within the government.

In a bid to overcome those differences, an aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said two major Shiite parties had signed a “charter of honor” to form a new, streamlined Cabinet of technocrats whose members would be appointed on merit and not sectarian affiliation.

The aide, Hassan al-Suneid, said the two major Kurdish parties would sign the pact. It was unclear whether the biggest Sunni party would sign on, too.