BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sunni Arab and secular groups refused today to open discussions with the Shiite religious bloc leading in Iraq's parliamentary elections until a full review of the contested results is carried out.

Their refusal could deepen the political turmoil following a U.N. observer's endorsement of Iraq's Dec. 15 elections. The official said the results were credible and that the results should stand.

“We are not taking part in discussions,” said Nasser al-Ani, a senior official in the main Sunni Arab coalition - the Iraqi Accordance Front.

Preliminary results from the vote have given the governing Shiite religious bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, a big lead - but one which still would require forming a coalition with other groups. Al-Ani told The Associated Press that his political group favored participating in broad-based coalition government, but would not begin contacts “until we get a clear picture about the results of the investigation.”

Mehedi al-Hafidh, a senior member of the secular Iraqi National List headed by former Shiite Premier Ayad Allawi, raised similar concerns.

“We confirm that we are not part of this process of consultations to form a new government,” al-Hafidh told The AP.

The U.N. endorsement came on Wednesday after opposition groups demanded international intervention and an independent review of more than 1,500 complaints about irregularities.

Jalal Talabani, Iraq's Kurd president, was holding talks this week with Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the cleric who heads the United Iraqi Alliance, and other members of that religious group to begin forming a coalition government after final results are released next week. There were no Sunni Arabs or secular Shiites at the meeting.

Al-Hakim has said that preparations were being made to choose a candidate for prime minister, who they have said must come from the United Iraqi Alliance.

Alliance officials have indicated likely candidates are current Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who heads the Islamic Dawa party, and Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who belongs to the other main Shiite party, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Preliminary results also indicated that Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, a former Washington insider, will not be re-elected to the new 275-member parliament, his office said.

In violence on Thursday, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives belt on a street near the Interior Ministry, killing one police officer and wounding four, police said. Earlier police had said four were killed. Gunmen in Baghdad assassinated an Iraqi driver working with a French company, police Capt. Qassem Hussein said, adding that a university student in northwestern Baghdad was killed in a drive-by shooting.

U.S. airstrikes launched by two F-16 fighter jets in Kirkuk province killed 10 insurgents on Tuesday, the military said Thursday.

The military said the pilots saw three men planting roadside bombs who fled when they heard the aircraft. The pilots killed the three and seven others with them after dropping two 500-pound, laser guided bombs, the military said.

The United Nations official, Craig Jenness, said at a news conference organized by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq that his U.N.-led international election assistance team found the elections to be fair. He said the number of complaints was less than one for every 7,000 voters. About 70 percent of Iraq's 15 million voters went to the polls.

His remarks represented crucial support for Iraqi election commission officials, who refused opposition demands to step down. They, too, said the elections were free and fair and that they would deal with the few instances of fraud and rigging of ballot boxes.

The Bush administration and many Iraqi officials hope the elections will lead to a broad-based government that will include minority Sunni Arabs as well as secular Shiites such as Allawi.

Saleh al-Mutlaq, a prominent Sunni candidate who has joined forces with Allawi to protest what they have described as rampant fraud, said he was angered by Jenness' remarks. He again demanded an independent review of the complaints.

He said without elaboration that the U.N. should “check our complaints and then express its views.”

Iraqi officials said they had found some instances of fraud that were enough to cancel the results in some places but not to hold another vote in any district.

The electoral commission has said fraud was discovered in the provinces of Baghdad, Irbil, Ninevah, Kirkuk, Anbar and Diyala.

Allawi said the election commission should also take into account political violence before the vote.

“There were gross intimidations throughout the country, and especially in certain provinces in the south, and Baghdad too, preceding the elections,” Allawi told CNN. “There were assassinations. We had numbers of people on my slate who had been killed, shot and killed, and supporters who have been killed. There were attempts to assassinate others, and they were badly injured.”

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Associated Press reporters Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report from Baghdad.