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BAGHDAD, March 24
(Reuters) - Iraqi leaders held their first formal
talks in several days as Washington kept up pressure
on them to form a national unity government to help
quell sectarian and insurgent violence that saw 29
more people killed on Friday.
Twenty deaths were reported in Baghdad alone. In one
attack, gunmen shot dead four workers in a bakery
and left a booby trap that killed a policeman when
he opened a package.
A bomb killed five worshippers and wounded 17 as
they left weekly prayers at a Sunni Muslim mosque at
Khalis, a violent town north of the capital, police
said.
Gunmen entered the house of a Shi'ite family in
Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, shooting dead four
people and critically wounding one, police said.
U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been a
driving force in pressing for a unity government,
said: "I am the one who's saying, 'The country is
bleeding, you need to move'."
Speaking to the Washington Post, he also noted that
despite a suicide car bombing on Thursday that
killed at least 25 people at a police headquarters,
more people died in death squad-style sectarian
killings in recent weeks than in bombings.
The destruction of a Shi'ite shrine a month ago
sparked a wave of reprisals that raised the prospect
of pro-government Shi'ite militias launching Iraq
into all-out civil war.
The leaders of the main parliamentary parties
elected in December attended Saturday's meeting,
with the exception of secular former Prime Minister
Iyad Allawi, a senior government source said.
However, he was represented at the talks.
At a news conference afterwards, the leaders again
committed themselves to forming a unity government,
but there was little sign of progress in breaking a
logjam over who will lead the government.
Further talks are due on Saturday, although the
leaders have made clear they first want to finalize
an agreement to set up a National Security Council.
ALLAWI ROLE
Allawi, with powerful backers in Washington, is
widely tipped among senior political sources to play
a leading role in the new Security Council, which
some portray as a powerful parallel administration
whose creation could sidestep deadlock among
Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds on forming a unity
government.
Some Shi'ite Islamists are putting up resistance to
such a deal, sources said. Campaigning against
Allawi's cross-sectarian list in December, the
Islamist Alliance compared the secular Shi'ite to
Saddam Hussein, accusing him of dictatorial
leanings.
U.S. envoy Khalilzad said 10 days ago that the
parties would meet "continuously" to break deadlock
on the line-up for a grand coalition. But Shi'ite
Muslim and Kurdish holidays this week prompted an
adjournment of several days.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld added his
voice to increasingly urgent calls from Washington
for a government deal to be completed -- leading
senators visiting Baghdad this week lectured Iraqi
politicians and spoke of American "impatience".
"A good government ... would be a good thing for the
country and would reduce the level of violence,"
Rumsfeld said. "They need to get about the task ...
Until it's done, it's not done."
In a mark of U.S. concern, Khalilzad is preparing to
hold talks on Iraq with officials from Iran, with
which the United States has not had diplomatic
relations since the Shi'ite Islamic revolution in
1979. There is as yet no clear sign of when and how
such discussions may take place.
IRAN ROLE
Iraqi Shi'ite politicians said the talks partly
reflect divisions within the Alliance bloc,
particularly over the nomination of interim Prime
Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to a second term. He has
Tehran's backing but Washington is uncomfortable
with him, Iraqi political sources say.
Khalilzad renewed accusations that Iran is backing
Shi'ite violence in Iraq -- some analysts say Tehran
is using Iraq to deflect U.S. pressure on Iran over
its nuclear program.
"Our judgment is that training and supplying, direct
or indirect, takes place, and that there is also
provision of financial resources to people, to
militias, and that there is presence of people
associated with Revolutionary Guard and with MOIS
(Iranian intelligence)," Khalilzad told the
Washington Post.
He said he was particularly concerned about the
Mehdi Army militia of Iranian-backed cleric Moqtada
al-Sadr, and said the political parties had to do
more to curb their armed supporters.
He said his own role in government negotiations had
been reduced but that a gulf remained between Sunnis
demanding a key role in decision-making and majority
Shiites reluctant to give the once dominant minority
an outright veto in cabinet.
Briton Norman Kember, 74, one of three Christian
peace activists rescued by British-led special
forces in Baghdad on Thursday after four months held
hostage, headed home on Friday.
Reuters
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