BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – Iraq puts its fragile democracy to the test today, convening its first freely elected National Assembly in recent history after last-minute bargaining over Sunni Arab candidates to head the parliament. Car bombings killed five Iraqi civilians and one American soldier.

Meanwhile, the U.S.-led coalition came under pressure as Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi announced Tuesday that his country’s 3,000 troops would begin leaving as the Iraqis slowly take control, a move that could complicate efforts to keep the peace.

Shiite Muslim officials said they failed to reach final agreement in talks with the Kurds – who are mostly Sunni Muslim but secular – and the Sunni Arabs. But those failures were not enough to prevent the 275-member National Assembly from preparing to meet Wednesday for the first time since the Jan. 30 elections.

“It will be a historic event because the Iraqi people will witness an elected parliament for the first time in their lives,” said Ali al-Dabagh, a member of the Shiite clergy-dominated United Iraqi Alliance, which won the most seats in the elections.

Al-Dabagh added that Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni Arab politicians would meet after the deputies are sworn in “to finalize things. We need two to three days to announce an agreement.”

The Shiite alliance won 140 seats in the National Assembly, but needs the Kurds’ 75 seats to assemble the two-thirds majority required to elect a president, who will then nominate the prime minister.

The assembly was to start with speeches from members of the interim government, followed by political party leaders and end with a swearing-in ceremony, officials said, adding that the parliament could meet over a number of days.

Shiite talks with Sunni Arabs focused on naming a parliament speaker, and it remained unclear if they would present a candidate today. Although the speaker’s role is mostly restricted to presiding over the assembly and moderating discussions, the job has a great deal of visibility.

Sunni Arabs are believed to make up the core of the insurgency, and including them in the political process is seen as a way to isolate the militants.

U.S. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, predicted to reporters traveling with him on a swing through Iraq that insurgent violence would surge in the weeks ahead as the National Assembly is convened and the government takes shape.

“So there’s a long way to go,” Myers said, before Iraq is stable enough to defend itself without the presence of U.S. troops, which now number about 148,000. He declined to say when a U.S. withdrawal might begin.

Berlusconi’s remarks represented the first time a country has connected a troop withdrawal to the ability of Iraqis to take control over their security.

In other violence announced Tuesday:

• A suicide car bomb exploded in northeastern Baghdad, killing a child and wounding at least four people, including a police officer, police Col. Muhanad Sadoun said. The bomber was trying to hit a patrol of traffic police but crashed into a tree, Sadoun said.

• In Mosul, the U.S. military said six insurgents were killed and four were injured Monday in clashes with U.S. and Iraqi forces.

• A U.S. Marine with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force died Monday in Anbar, a troubled province that has been a hotbed of guerrilla activity and includes the cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and Qaim, officials said. At least 1,516 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

• In northern Iraq, insurgents blew up an oil pipeline connecting the Kirkuk fields with a refinery in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, an official in the Northern Oil Co. said.

The pipeline is used only for domestic deliveries, the official said on condition of anonymity. He did not have details on the extent of the damage.