Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Wednesday he has presented a cabinet listto the presidential council, some three months after the legislative elections were held in the war-torn country.

"I have sent the list of the cabinet to the presidential council and then it will be sent to the national assembly (parliament) by tomorrow," Jaafari told a press conference.

The positive political step came as a female member of parliament was shot dead by gunmen in her house in Baghdad.

Lamiya Abed, a woman legislator in a bloc led by outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, was assassinated after she went home from a parliamentary session earlier Wednesday.

She was the first parliament member assassinated by insurgents since the 275-member assembly was sworn in in February. Insurgents have launched targeted attacks on high-ranking Iraqi officials in an attempt to derail the political process in the violence-ravaged country.

Allawi himself escaped an attempt on his life last week. Asuicide car bomb was detonated near his convoy, killing two policemen.

Officials believe the insurgents have been emboldened by the repeated delay in forming a transitional government, which will lead Iraq till the end of the year.

On Wednesday's press conference, Jaafari refused to unveil the governmental makeup, saying "I will not release the names of the new ministers on the list unless it is approved officially." Once approved by President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies, the list will be put to a vote in the national assembly before it becomes valid.

The cabinet is formed on a broad basis of all ethnic and religious communities including the Sunni Arabs, said Jaafari." It reflects the demographic diversity of the Iraqi people, both religiously and ethnically," he said.

Four deputy prime ministers and seven women are included, he added.

"We choose the ministers according to their qualifications and their political and national backgrounds," he said. Jaafari said he will carry out a "reform" in the new government but did not say if the reform means cleansing former Baathists in the security forces.

"If there are wrong practices or bad elements in the governmental circles, we will administratively deal with them," he stressed.

The priorities in the transitional period will be restoring security and improving the living conditions for all Iraqis, Jaafari told reporters.

Asked to comment on the new government in one word, Jaafari said it is a "government of action."

In another development on Wednesday, gunmen opened fire on the convoy of a senior Iraqi police officer, wounding him and killing two of his bodyguards.

Brig. Gen. Jihad Luaiby, head of the civil defense department of the Interior Ministry, was attacked as he was heading to work. An Internet statement by the al-Qaida wing in Iraq said a group of its fighters ambushed Luaiby's convoy, killing him and his son, who is also an Interior Ministry official.

The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified.