White House: US backs broad-based Iraqi gov't

The United States wants to see a broad-based Iraq government formed, the White House said on Friday after the main Shi'ite bloc picked incumbent Nuri al-Maliki as its candidate for the post of prime minister.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs declined to comment directly on the bloc's decision to pick Maliki, a move that potential ends a months-long impasse on forming a new government. "This is what young democracies go through to form a representative government of the people," he said. (Reuters)