BAGHDAD, Iraq – Kurdish leaders said they were near a final agreement yesterday with the majority Shiites to form a coalition government when Iraq’s first democratically elected Parliament in modern history convenes later this week.

Further talks are slated in Baghdad today. The deal calls for Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader, to be named president. Conservative Islamic Dawa party leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari, of the Shiite majority, would become prime minister.

But as the country neared a political landmark many hoped would set the stage for an eventual American withdrawal, two American security contractors were killed, and a third was wounded in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad. The three worked for Blackwater Security, a North Carolina-based firm that provides security for American State Department officials and facilities in Iraq. They were attacked on the main road to Hillah, south of Baghdad, according to Bob Callahan, an American Embassy spokesman.

In Mosul, American and Iraqi troops killed five insurgents in street fighting, the military said. Three other people, a woman and two children, were killed inadvertently when a U.S. helicopter gunship fired at insurgents, according to Mosul’s Al-Jumhuri Teaching Hospital.

The military said at least five Iraqis were wounded in the incident, which occurred when a patrolling helicopter was fired on by insurgents in four cars. The American helicopter returned fire, destroying three of the cars, and American officials said the incident was under investigation.

Also yesterday, Prime Minister Raffarin reported new contact and information about the kidnapped French journalist Florence Aubenas and Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, her Iraqi interpreter. Mr. Raffarin said the new contacts gave hope the Liberation newspaper reporter could be freed. Ms. Aubenas and her translator were kidnapped in Baghdad on January 5.

Liberation director Serge July visited Baghdad’s Um al-Qura mosque, which serves as headquarters of the Association of Muslim Scholars, an influential organization of Sunni clerics. Sunni Arabs make up the bulk of Iraq’s insurgency. In protest against insurgent violence, a small group of about 50 Shiites demonstrated outside Jordan’s embassy after reports that the suicide bomber who killed 125 people in a February 28 attack in Hillah was Jordanian. The protesters burned at least one Jordanian flag.