Kidnappers free captured Iraqi MP

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An Iraqi MP kidnapped nearly two months ago has been freed, officials and state television reported.

Tayseer al-Mashhadani, a member of the Sunni National Concord Front, was seized in Baghdad on 1 July, sparking a parliamentary boycott by the bloc.

Ms Mashhadani said her captors had treated her well, AP news agency said.

Seven of Ms Mashhadani's bodyguards were seized with her. Two had already been freed, but there was no immediate word on the fate of the others.

"They were treating me well. I used to watch television and follow the news. I used to talk to them and they kept telling me to 'be patient'," Ms Mashhadani said after meeting Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, AP said.

The agency said she looked relaxed and was smiling.

"I encourage them to indulge in reconciliation. I took their e-mail and they took mine so we can indulge in a dialogue," it quoted her as saying.

Iraqi television said her release came after direct intervention by the government.

"She was released after Prime Minister Nouri Maliki made a plea for her release and she was now in his office," al-Iraqiya said.

Ms Mashhadani and her guards were captured in a Shia area of Baghdad. No group has publicly admitted carrying out the attack, but reports suggest the authorities received demands for the release of Shia detainees.

Tribal chiefs meet

Her release came as hundreds of Iraq's tribal chiefs agreed to support the reconciliation plan launched by Mr Maliki.

They also promised to work towards ending the sectarian killings that have claimed thousands of Iraqi lives.

Nouri Maliki said he was encouraged by the tribal leaders' conference

The prime minister's appeal to the leaders emphasises their influential role within Iraqi society, where many people identify strongly with their tribal roots, says the BBC's Arab world regional editor, Karen O'Brien.

The conference is the first of four such tribal gatherings planned across Iraq by the new national reconciliation committee set up by the prime minister last month, to try to bridge the increasingly violent divisions between Shia and Sunni Muslims.

Mr Maliki said he was extremely encouraged by what he had heard from those attending.

Iraq, he said, was a country where tribes were intertwined, with many having both Sunni and Shia members.

As his government battles the insurgency, it is that spirit of unity and reconciliation that he's desperate to see duplicated throughout Iraqi society, our correspondent says.