BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's Kurdish interim vice president said today that negotiations to pick the country's new prime minister were far from over, as Iraq's new political king-makers sought to secure top jobs, including the largely ceremonial post of president.

Haggling over senior positions in the upcoming government came against the backdrop of more violence. A car bomb killed two people and wounded 14 in the northern city of Mosul, and a U.S. soldier was killed in a separate bomb attack north of Baghdad, officials said.

The dominant Shiite coalition on Tuesday chose Ibrahim al-Jaafari, one of two interim vice presidents and leader of a religious party that fought Saddam Hussein, as its candidate for prime minister - making him the overwhelming favorite for the post.

But for al-Jaafari to take the premiership he must build a coalition to gain agreement from Kurds and others on the presidency and candidates for Cabinet posts before seeking the support of a majority of the National Assembly elected Jan. 30.

Incumbent premier Ayad Allawi has shown no sign of giving up his own bid for the powerful post.

Allawi said today that he was forming a broad coalition to fight for the post of prime minister.

Allawi would not provide details of the proposed coalition, but he promised it would seek to establish a government "which believes in Iraq and its principles."

"There are other lists and other brothers in smaller lists which won the elections, and we are working with some of those lists to form a national Iraqi democratic coalition which believes in Iraq and its principles," Allawi said.

The Shiite Muslim clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance won 140 seats, while Allawi's secular Iraqi List party won 40 seats. Nine other parties divided the remaining 20 seats.

According to the interim constitution adopted last year under the U.S. occupation, parliament must elect a president and two vice presidents by a two-thirds majority, or 182 seats. The three must then unanimously choose a prime minister subject to assembly approval.

There is no timetable for the assembly to convene, and al-Jaafari and his alliance must agree with other elected parties on who will fill the three posts and the Cabinet. Even then, the prime minister has a month to name his Cabinet before the assembly vote.

Today's car bomb exploded in western Mosul, said Essam Youssef of the city's Jamhouri hospital, where some of the casualties were brought. It was not immediately clear what the target of the bomb was. Witnesses said no U.S. or Iraqi forces were in the area where the explosion took place.

Also today in Mosul, U.S. soldiers shot dead a civilian in a pickup truck who approached their convoy too closely as he was trying to pass it, policeman Ahmed Rashid said. Weary of car bombs, most U.S. military vehicles carry signs warning drivers to keep away.

Elsewhere, a soldier from the U.S. Task Force Liberty was killed today when assailants set off the bomb near Tuz, 105 miles north of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.