Tell the Sunnis to go screw themselves.

"But those pressing for a government of national unity could be disappointed - the indications from Abd-al-Aziz al-Hakim, the top man on the Shia United Iraqi Alliance list, are not promising.

"He told the BBC this week: "This is a democracy - there are winners and losers. There is the side that forms a government and there is a side that forges opposition."

"He did not appear keen to hold out an olive branch to the Sunni political point of view, nor did he offer any ground on reviewing the constitution - the lever used to prise the Sunnis into joining the electoral process this time around."