BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's president said today he would convene the new parliament for the first time on Sunday, beginning a 60-day countdown during which lawmakers must elect a new head of state and sign off on a prime minister and Cabinet.

A string of explosions in Baghdad and north of the capital, meanwhile, killed at least 14 Iraqis and wounded 52.

A U.S. soldier was reported killed in insurgency-plagued western Anbar province.

The violence underscored a dangerous leadership vacuum as Sunni Arab and Kurdish politicians increased pressure on Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to abandon his bid for a new term, and leaders of Iraq's Shiite majority struggled to overcome internal divisions.

The constitution requires parliament to meet no later than four weeks after the vote was certified, which occurred Feb. 12, nearly two months after the election.

"We will call today for holding the meeting on the 12th of this month because it is the last day that the constitution allows us to hold the meeting of the new parliament," President Jalal Talabani told reporters.

But a leading member of al-Jaafari's Dawa Party, Ali al-Adib, said parliament's main Shiite bloc would request the session be postponed until there was agreement on who should occupy the top government positions.

Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr predicted a "quick solution" to snarled attempts to form a government.

Emerging from a meeting in the Shiite holy city of Najaf with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and secular Shiite parliamentarian Ahmed Chalabi, al-Sadr said: "All obstacles to forming a national unity government soon will be resolved."

The struggle to form a broad-based governing coalition acceptable to all the country's main ethnic and religious groups has been hampered by sectarian conflict and insurgent violence.