Iraq PM calls summit to save unity government

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki yesterday called upon senior leaders in Iraq's bitterly divided communities to hold crisis talks this week in an effort to save his fraying national unity government.

His latest attempt to bring the leaders of the warring communites under one roof came at a time when the American military declared that five more of its troops battling to bring security to war-torn Iraq had been killed.

"I have invited major political leaders to a meeting to discuss substantial matters," Maliki said in a televised speech.

"Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow could be the first meeting for these leaders to discuss the political programme and important strategic problems," the embattled Shiite premier said.

Seventeen ministerial posts in his government are empty or filled by members boycotting cabinet meetings amid protests by many parties, especially the main Sunni Arab bloc, at Maliki's faltering programme of national reconciliation.

Hopes that his so-called unity coalition can be saved now depend on the senior leadership of the rival parties cutting a new power-sharing deal that can convince the bitter Sunni minority to return to the fold.

Maliki, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi, another Shiite, are expected to attend the crisis summit.

Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, the senior Sunni Arab in the government and a critic of Maliki's alleged sectarian bias whose presence would be considered crucial, has not yet made it explicitly clear whether he will attend.

But the main Sunni bloc, the National Concord Front to which Hashemi belongs, agreed to participate in the summit, despite its decision to walk out of the government.

"It (the summit) is not just a wish of the government but a wish of all the political parties, and has nothing to do with the Front's withdrawal," said Salim Abdullah, spokesman of the Front.

"We will participate in the meeting and discuss various issues, including those related to security and dealing with the militia."

The Front withdrew from Maliki's government on August 1, effectively ending any claim by the Shiite-dominated coalition to be one of national unity.

The bloc has accused the government of failing to rein in Shiite militias accused of killing Sunni Arabs in the brutal Iraqi sectarian strife.

Since the US-led invasion of March 2003, Iraq has plunged into an abyss of overlapping civil conflicts that have divided its rival religious and ethnic communities, and left tens of thousands of civilians dead.

Washington has warned Iraq's leaders to work harder on unity, concerned that the political stalemate could torpedo efforts to reconcile the warring factions and undermine the work of 155,000 American troops to end the conflict.

Shiite parties are suspicious of Sunni leaders whose minority sect dominated political power under executed former dictator Saddam Hussein and accuse them of supporting violent insurgent groups.

Sunni leaders accuse the Shiite parties of ties with powerful neighbour Iran and condemn their alleged complicity with Shiite militias.