As the May 22 deadline approaches for Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Nouri al-Maliki to appoint his Cabinet, senior negotiators said Tuesday that they were in the final phases of a compromise and expected an announcement to be made within 48 hours.

Last week, al-Maliki was expected to announce the Cabinet without filling the key posts of minister of interior, who oversees police, and minister of defense, who oversees the Iraqi army. But negotiators and a U.S. official said Tuesday that al-Maliki would likely announce a full Cabinet by the end of this week.

The top candidates for the Interior Ministry post, to be filled by a Shiite, are Ahmad Chalabi, the outgoing deputy prime minister who has ties to Iran, and Qassim Dawoud, an independent Shiite politician.

The top candidate for minister of defense is Hajim al Hassani, a Sunni Arab affiliated with the secular political slate led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, according to legislators involved in the negotiations.

As Iraqi lawmakers struggle to create a representative government, sectarian violence and the lack of electricity and water continue to concern ordinary Iraqis.

A U.S. soldier died when a roadside bomb exploded near Rasheed airfield, a former Iraqi air force installation in Baghdad. Two other soldiers were killed Monday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad.

Also Tuesday, the trial of Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants for the killing of 148 Shiites resumed with the former Iraqi president absent from the courtroom.

As the defense team presented witnesses to vouch for the character and whereabouts of three of the co-defendants, they repeatedly referred to Saddam as the president of Iraq, a title Judge Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman had pointedly denied Saddam on Monday.

This is cache, read story here