BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's incoming prime minister today met with the presidential council to finalize the remaining seats in his Cabinet before Iraq's first democratically elected government was sworn in, lawmakers said.

Last-minute haggling continued over the defense ministry, which Ibrahim al-Jaafari wants to give to a member of the disaffected Sunni minority.

The body of a pilot from one of two missing Marine jets from the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier was found today, the U.S. command said. The jets had gone missing Monday night while flying in support of operations in Iraq, but there was no immediate word on the fate of the aircraft.

The brief military statement did not specify how many people were aboard the two F/A-18 Hornet aircraft when contact was lost with them. There was no immediate indication of hostile fire in the area at that time.

Near the Syrian border on Monday, coalition forces tracked down and confronted suspected members of al-Qaida in Iraq, the U.S. military said. The fighting, which included a U.S. air strike, killed 12 militants and injured a 6-year-old girl, the military said. Six coalition soldiers also were wounded, it said, without specifying their nationalities.

The approval last week of a partial Cabinet that largely shut out Sunnis was followed by a torrent of violence - attacks that have left at least 140 dead.

At least 35 Iraqis were killed Monday, including eight soldiers cut down by a suicide attacker who blew up a truck at a checkpoint south of the capital, and six civilians caught in a car bombing that set fire to a Baghdad apartment building. An American and a British soldier were also killed in separate roadside bombings.

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a statement strongly condemning the "cruel and heartless" violence apparently aimed at undermining Iraq's newly formed government.

The skyrocketing attacks are blamed on an insurgency believed largely made up of members of Iraq's Sunni minority, who dominated for decades under Saddam Hussein but were excluded from meaningful positions in a partial new Cabinet announced Thursday.

Al-Jaafari has filled six of the seven Cabinet position left undecided last week, according to his aide Laith Kuba. Today he discussed the names with President Jalal Talabani and his two vice presidents, who must sign off on them before they are submitted to parliament for a vote.

But as members of the 275-member National Assembly started meeting this morning, lawmakers said candidates were still being discussed for the defense ministry.

Al-Jaafari had promised to form a government that would win over Sunni moderates and reduce Sunni support for the deadly insurgency, offering them six ministries and a deputy premiership. But Sunni politicians insisted they be given at least seven ministerial portfolios.

On Sunday, Kurdish factions agreed to give up one of their ministries to meet the Sunnis' demand, said Azad Junduiani, spokesman for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two main Kurdish parties.

Salih al-Mutlag, head of the National Dialogue Council, a coalition of 10 Sunni factions, identified the Sunni deputy prime minister as Abid Mutlag al-Juburi, a former major general in Saddam's army. He said three candidates were being discussed for defense minister: Hamid Obeid and Ahmed Rikan, both former generals under Saddam, and Mohammed Hassan.

Members of al-Jaafari's Shiite-dominated alliance refused to confirm any names before President Jalal Talabani and his two vice presidents sign off on them and they are presented to the National Assembly for a vote.

However, Shiite leaders rejected al-Jaafari's initial choice for defense minister, Saadon al-Dulaimi, because of his ties to Saddam's Baath Party, which brutally repressed the majority Shiites and Kurds. Three Sunni lawmakers quit al-Jaafari's United Iraqi Alliance, complaining he should look within his own coalition first to fill Cabinet posts.

Al-Jaafari wanted to have all positions finalized before the new Cabinet was sworn in today, Kuba said. But the ceremony was expected to go ahead even if there were still vacancies.