BAGHDAD, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Nearly seven years after the U.S.-led invasion, Iraqis seem to have not lived far away from violence featuring fatal car bombs, but not everything goes bad for them in the year 2009.

Their hard life is in hopes of improvement, as the country's rich oil will bring more cash in the coming years after a number of international firms get development rights.

SECURITY SITUATION WORRISOME

A place where violence occurs most, the Iraqi capital has witnessed waves of bombings, including three high-profile coordinated car bombings since August.

In the latest, four people were killed and 14 wounded after three explosions went off outside the heavily protected Green Zone in central Baghdad on Dec. 15, just a week after the Dec. 8 attacks that killed 127 and wounded 448 others.

In August and October, the capital city had two similar attacks targeting government buildings, which killed more than 250. The bloody attacks took place after the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from the country's urban areas at the end of June. A resurge of violence raise fresh concerns over the security situation that had seen much improvement since 2008, and doubts about the Iraqi security forces' ability to protect the government and its citizens.

An obvious feature of the violent attacks is that their targets have shifted from markets, mosques and restaurants in the first half of the year, to government buildings in the second half, which analysts say is a shift of tactics of terrorists.

Iraqi and U.S. officials have warned of a possible rise in violent attacks ahead of the parliamentary election slated for early March next year.

Although violence has dropped off dramatically in the war-torn country since 2008, al-Qaida in Iraq and other armed groups are still capable of launching major attacks against Iraqi security forces and civilians in heavily-fortified cities and towns across the country.

The attacks, widely believed to aim to derail the country's political process, have dealt a blow to the public's confidence in the current government. Thus, given the approach of parliamentary elections, the government faces a tough task of improving the security situation to win public support.

In the latest move to crack down on violence, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Wednesday his government is concentrating on developing intelligence service by activating the role of citizens in reporting about terrorist activities. The government plans to offer a reward of 100 million Iraqi dinars (about 86,000 U.S. dollars) to anybody who provides information about car bombs or about those behind the terrorist acts.

POLITICAL STRUGGLE GOES ON

The nationwide parliamentary elections scheduled for March next year are widely seen as a major step in forging power-sharing agreements in central governing bodies among Iraq's religious and ethnic communities and are key to lasting peace and reconstruction of the country.

The parliamentary elections are also considered as another milestone for political development of the war-torn country after the relatively calm provincial elections held on January 31, 2009,which brought new blood into local governing bodies and served as a dry run for the coming nationwide parliamentary elections.

On Dec. 6, Iraqi lawmakers finally reached an agreement on a new version of the electoral law that would govern the country's parliamentary polls, paying the way for the national election, after months of struggle among different blocs in the country. On Nov. 18, the Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi vetoed the electoral law passed by the parliament on Nov. 8, demanding more seats in the parliament for Iraqis living abroad, most of whom are Sunni Arab Muslims.

Due to the delay of the election law, Iraq's presidency council has to put off the parliamentary elections, originally slated for Jan. 16, until March 7.

The parliamentary elections will reshuffle the power arena and decide the country's future in the coming four years. The Kurds, the Sunnis and Shiites, are struggling to seek more say and interests for their own blocs. Thus political struggle has yet ended.

In October, Nuri al-Maliki announced a broad-based 40-party political bloc to run in the country's coming elections against his old Shiite allies. Maliki's State of Law Coalition includes, besides his own party, other parties from Shiite community and Sunni tribal groups as well as candidates from other Iraqi minorities. In 2005, Maliki's Dawa Party was part of a broader Shiite alliance that garnered a majority of Iraq's 275-seat parliament.

His former Shiite partners have also been forming their own group, the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), which includes the influential Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) of Ammar al-Hakim. On Aug. 24, the INA published a list of election candidates, excluding Maliki's Dawa Party.

OIL CONTRACTS SUCCESSFUL

In 2009, Iraq has been under the spotlight for another key reason -- the auctioning of its enormous oil fields. The country held two auctions this year, the first in June and the second in December. Compared with the first, the Dec. 11-12 auction was much more fruitful, with seven of ten offered oil fields finding global developers.

Among the oil fields in the two rounds, Rumaila, West Qurna-Phase 2 and Majnoon, which boast top reserves in the country, have all found world major developers.

Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani regarded the second auction "a victory," and said the money generated would "be for the Iraqi people."

The oil sector dominates the country's economy and will play a vital role in its rebuilding. Oil exports traditionally account for 75 percent of the country's gross domestic product. The Iraqi government estimates the country will get around 200 billion U.S. dollars from oil over the next six years.

"True, it has succeeded in attracting the investments it desperately needs and got more than it had originally bargained for," said Ruba Husari, editor of the Iraq Oil Forum, in her article published on the forum's website on Dec. 16.

"Huge oil fields put on the market almost 15 years ago and courted since by a multitude of companies, are finally set to put Iraq, in principle, back on the world energy map as foreign oil expertise is set to make its way into Iraq in numbers unknown since nationalization in the mid-1970s," the expert on Middle Eastoil said.

With an estimated 115 billion barrels, Iraq has the world No. 3proven oil reserves, after Saudi Arabia and Iran. However, after years of UN sanctions and war, the oil sector did not become the engine of the country that has no reason to be poor because of itsrich oil and natural gas resources.

Currently, the country has a daily output of around 2.5 million barrels, with two million barrels for exports. The government aims to boost production capacity to around 12 million barrels a day in the long run.

"We want to exploit the oil's revenues in rebuilding our country and in serving Iraqi people," Maliki said at the second auction.

"Iraqis are the owner of wealth of oil and the Iraqi people are looking forward to see this wealth to be changed quickly to industries and in increasing the stability in the country."

The oil revenues will provide strong finance for Iraq to develop its economy. The Iraqis may find hopes of improving their life over the coming years after all the contracts are carried out.