BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's presidential council was sworn in today and named Shiite Arab Ibrahim al-Jaafari as interim prime minister, the country's most powerful position, further consolidating the power shift in postwar Iraq.

Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani was sworn in as Iraq's new interim president today as well, after decades of opposing Saddam Hussein.

Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite, and former interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab, were sworn in as vice presidents.

Al-Jaafari has two weeks to name his Cabinet, allowing the new government to begin work on its primary task: drafting a permanent constitution. If approved, the constitution will pave the way for elections for a permanent government in December.

Al-Jaafari's rise to the prime minister's job solidifies the rise to power of majority Shiites and minority Kurds after decades of brutal oppression under Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime.

Shiites, who comprise some 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million population, have a majority of seats in the National Assembly, while Kurds have the second-largest bloc. Sunni Arabs have disproportionately few seats, largely because many boycotted the Jan. 30 elections or stayed home for fear of attacks at the polls.

Kurds make up about 20 percent of the population, while Sunnis make up 15 percent to 20 percent of the population.

Al-Jaafari spent more than two decades in exile, mostly in Britain and Iran, helping to lead anti-Saddam opposition forces in the Islamic Dawa Party, Iraq's first Shiite Islamic political party. He also has close ties to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric. Al-Jaafari's wife is a distant relative of al-Sistani's.

Talabani, who led an armed uprising against Saddam, and the two vice presidents chosen for the largely ceremonial presidential posts on Wednesday after weeks of sometimes negotiations.

After he was named to the presidency, Talabani urged Iraqi insurgents, who are believed to be mostly Sunni Arabs, to begin talks. But prominent Sunni Arab groups distanced themselves from the new government - even though some Sunni leaders were give top posts.

"We are not related to any process in this matter of choosing candidates," Muthana al-Dhari, spokesman for the Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni group, told Al-Jazeera satellite television.

Lawmakers have been in ongoing negotiations over Cabinet nominees who will manage government ministries. And they have yet to delve into their primary task: drafting a permanent constitution, which is supposed to be finished by Aug. 15.

South of Baghdad, a lawmaker in former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's coalition in parliament said today he survived an assassination attempt after the assembly meeting the prior day. Skeikh Maad Jasim Mizhir al-Samarmad, also head of the Zubid tribes in Iraq, said he was attacked by gunmen in the al-Wihda district, 20 miles south of the capital.

On Wednesday, an Internet statement, purportedly from the terrorist group al-Qaida in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of a senior Interior Ministry official, Brig. Gen. Jala Mohammed Saleh. The statement could not be independently verified.

Saleh, involved in anti-insurgency operations, was kidnapped Tuesday by gunmen who broke into his house in Baghdad.