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BAGHDAD, Iraq 12
March, -- U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad met with
the leaders of all of Iraq's political and ethnic
blocs Sunday in stepped up efforts to break the
stalemate over the formation of a unity government.
The meeting came as moves to broker agreement on a
new government comprising Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds
appeared to take on greater urgency days before key
military leaders were expected to make
recommendations on the withdrawal of U.S. forces in
meetings with President Bush in Washington.
It convened at Kurdish Democratic Party headquarters
in the heavily fortified Green Zone with President
Jalal Talabani, a Kurd; Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a
Shiite; Adnan al-Dulaimi, a Sunni; and Adnan
Pachachi, a secular Sunni in attendance. Shiite
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari was not there but
met earlier Sunday with Talabani.
Khalilzad seemed particularly eager to publicize the
meeting. His office took the unusual step of
announcing it in advance and inviting reporters to
be on hand for a photo session and news conference
that was planned when it concluded.
A key Kurdish politician indicated the timing of the
session may have been forced on Khalilzad by a
threat from Massoud Barzani, the president of one of
two Kurdish provinces, to leave the capital for home
if no progress was made on negotiations over the
government.
"Massoud has commitments in Kurdistan and he wants
to know if there is a reason to keep staying in
Baghdad or go back to the region," Kurdish
parliamentarian Mahmoud Othman said.
Barzani, leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party,
joined Khalilzad last week in calling for the
leaders of all Iraq's political factions to meet
away from the capital in an effort to untangle the
increasingly snarled efforts to form a unity
government.
Barzani suggest the meeting be held in his
provincial capital, Erbil.
Formation of a strong central government is key to
U.S. hopes to announce troop withdrawals beginning
this summer.
Gen. John Abizaid, the chief of the U.S. Central
Command, said earlier this month that he and Gen.
George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq,
discussed the potential for a withdrawal of some
U.S. troops this summer, but he declined to say what
he would recommend to Bush when they meet.
There are now about 132,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. The
U.S. death toll since the start of the war in March
2003 exceeds 2,300, in addition to more than 17,000
wounded.
In an interview with the pan-Arab al-Hayat daily
published Sunday, Khalilzad linked stability in
Iraq, which he said would take "a long time," to
creation of a unity government.
"We are prepared to work with the Iraqis to speed up
the process, but the speed of this process depends
on the decisions of the Iraqis to form a national
unity government and give Cabinet posts to competent
individuals who unite the people and who do not
quarrel with each other," Khalilzad was quoted as
saying.
In recent weeks, the ambassador has expressed
increasing frustration over the bickering among
politicians, whom he has accused of putting their
own political interests ahead of the needs of the
Iraqi people.
AP
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