Iraqi politicians named a moderate Sunni Islamist as speaker of Parliament yesterday, a long-delayed first step towards a power-sharing government urgently needed to save the state from disintegration in the face of a Sunni uprising.

A Shi’ite leader suggesting the naming of Salim al-Jabouri as Speaker was part of a broader political deal, but gave no clue as to whether that meant Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had managed to secure backing for a third term.

Maliki, whose State of Law coalition won the most seats but would need allies to form a government, has ruled since the election as a caretaker, defying demands from Sunnis and Kurds that he step aside for a less-polarising figure.

Yesterday’s vote came as Iraq’s army and allied Shi’ite militia launched an assault to retake former dictator Saddam Hussein’s home city Tikrit from the al-Qaeda offshoot known as the Islamic State and allied militants, who seized it in mid-June during a lightning assault through the north.

The stunning advance by the militants over the past month has put Iraq’s very survival in jeopardy even as its politicians have been deadlocked over forming a new government since an election in April.

Washington has made clear that setting up a more inclusive government in Baghdad is a requirement for its military support against the insurgency.

Under Iraq’s governing system put in place after the US invasion in 2003, the prime minister has always been a member of the Shi’ite majority, the speaker a Sunni and the largely ceremonial president a Kurd.