Three car bomb blasts rocked Baghdad on Monday, killing at least eight Iraqis, as the Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim Jaafari filled all the cabinet posts of the transitional government, which will govern Iraq till the end of the year.

The first car bomb exploded near the convoy of a police commander in northern Baghdad, but the officer escaped from the attack. "Major General Fulayeh Rashid was lightly injured along with his three bodyguards," said a policeman, who declined to be identified.

The ambush was the latest in a series of assassination attempts on lives of officials working with the Interior Ministry.

A second bomb went off in the upscale Karrada neighborhood in central Baghdad, at least six people were killed in the explosion, which also destroyed three shops and many civilian cars. A third car bomb killed two policemen and wounded more than 10 others in eastern Baghdad.

Late Sunday, a suicide car bomber ripped through a funeral of a Kurdish official in the northern city of Tal Afar, killing 30 people and wounding 50 others.

Iraq has seen at least 15 suicide car bomb attacks in the past three days since a partial list of the 36-member cabinet lineup was approved by the parliament on Thursday, with two deputy premierships left vacant and five ministerial posts only temporarily filled.

Jaafari said on Monday that he had completed forming the cabinet after he named two former generals of Saddam Hussein regime as defense minister and one of the four deputy prime ministers.

Six ministerial posts and a deputy premiership will go to Sunni Arabs, a ruling minority under former Saddam regime, although most of the crucial portfolios are in the hands of Shiites and Kurds, the first and second winners in the parliamentary elections.

"We nominated three candidates for each position and he (Jaafari) chose Lt. Gen. Abed Mutlak al-Jubury as the deputy prime minister and Lt.Gen. Ahmed al-Raykan al-Shameri as the defense minister," Sunni parliament member Meshaan al-Jubury told Xinhua.

Jaafari's Shiite alliance, which dominated the 275-member National Assembly, repeatedly rejected candidates proposed by Sunni Arab groups for the positions, branding them as "former Baathists".

Jubury said Jaafari had also agreed to rethink a program presented by the National Dialogue Council, an umbrella group consisting of 30 Sunni parties, that any Sunni candidate should be evaluated "according to his merits and not backgrounds."

The Shiite dominated United Iraqi Alliance which won 140 parliament seats in Jan. 30 elections, and the Kurdish parties that came second with 75 seats have tried to include the marginalized Sunni Arabs in the political process in a bid to form a national unity government and pacify the Sunni-backed insurgency.

"If they (Shiite politicians) do what they have promised us, I'm sure the violence will decrease," said Jubury, adding that "the government also pledges to release the detainees who have not committed crimes to Iraqi people."

The cabinet's swearing-in ceremony, due on Tuesday, will put an end to the protracted wrangling over allocation of posts. The delay was also believed to have emboldened the insurgents in the past three months.

In other developments, the British Ministry of Defense said a British soldier died of wounds on Monday, bringing the UK military death toll to 83 since the US-led invasion in Iraq started in March 2003.

Media reports said on Sunday the kidnappers of an Australian man working with the US forces in Iraq released a video footage, showing the hostage appealing for life.

The group, calling itself Shura Council of the Mujahedeen of Iraq, also urged Canberra to withdraw its 550 troops from Iraq.

The Australian government, while maintaining it would not succumb to the kidnappers, said it would send an emergency team to rescue the hostage.