BAGHDAD, Iraq — In the month since Iraqis rushed to the polls in support of democracy, getting anything done has proved a painstaking process of consensus building that's now focused on two political groups whose interests are diametrically opposed.

The national assembly that will write the country's permanent constitution cannot meet until key government positions are assigned. And central to determining how power will be allocated are the United Iraqi Alliance, religious Shiites Muslims who hold 140 seats in the 275-seat assembly, and the once-powerless Kurds, who with 75 seats are the second-biggest bloc in the assembly.

The Shiites are determined to use Islam as a legal cornerstone, something the staunchly secular Kurds reject. The Kurds say they will cooperate only with those who offer them control of oil-rich Kirkuk, a promise that Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Alliance choice for prime minister, says will never be made.

But the Kurds are showing little inclination, publicly at least, to compromise.

"Even if we are forced to fight for our rights with guns, we will," says Abduljalil Feili, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in central and southern Iraq. "We prefer negotiations and a political solution. [But] we will use all the options we have."

The Kurds' assertiveness flows from their legal trump card. Under the transitional administrative law written last spring by the Interim Governing Council with U.S. guidance, a permanent constitution can be vetoed if three provinces do not ratify it. The Kurds control Iraq's three northern provinces.

"At the rate they are going, they will have to ask for an extension," in writing the constitution, says Nathan Brown, a professor of political science at George Washington University.

The current political wrangling has its source in laws designed to force disparate political groups to work together, and to prevent another authoritarian regime by giving significant power to minority groups.

Among other consensus-building mechanisms, the law requires two-thirds of the national assembly to approve the president, a new government and a new constitution.

"The very high threshold means you [may] never have a government," said Andres Arato, a constitutional expert at the New School University in New York. For instance, while it is expected that al-Jaafari will be named prime minister, no decisions have been made on a president, two deputy presidents and the Cabinet.

David Phillips, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, says that while Iraq is on an uncharted path, similar experiences in other countries have shown the importance of decentralizing authority.

He says it is important to spread power among the country's governorates and local government. While the process is slow, it will probably continue to move forward, he says.

"It's definitely taking time for Iraqis to find common ground, but when you look at each threshold moment [previously] ... they waited until the 11th hour and cut deals," Phillips says. "That's what's happening now."

Noting that Alliance and Kurdish leaders will meet this week with interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and President Ghazi Yawar, an official of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the largest bloc in the Alliance, predicted a compromise will be reached.

"The train of democracy is starting down the line," he said. "Maybe we will stay in the station a few minutes, but the train is moving."

Car bombs kill at least 26

A suicide car bomber drove into a crowd of people applying for work in a government office south of Baghdad and detonated his explosives today, killing 25 people and wounded 71, a senior Interior Ministry official and witnesses said.

The attack occurred in Hilla, about 60 miles south of Baghdad.

The Interior Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the death toll was likely to rise.

In a separate attack in Musayyib, about 20 miles north of Hillah, another car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint, killing at least one policeman.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.