US calls for Iraqi reconciliation

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/7123872.stm

Version 0 of 1.

The US deputy secretary of state has said Iraq's leaders must take advantage of the improved security situation to make progress towards reconciliation.

John Negroponte warned that if they failed, Iraq risked "falling back to the more violent patterns of the past".

Mr Negroponte was speaking in Baghdad at the end of a six-day visit to Iraq.

Earlier, Sunni Arab MPs boycotted parliament for a second day in protest at what they said was the house arrest of leading politician Adnan al-Dulaimi.

Mr Dulaimi, a prominent member of the country's main Sunni Arab bloc, was later moved from his house in Baghdad to a hotel in the capital's heavily-fortified Green Zone, officials said.

The Iraqi government said it had decided to move Mr Dulaimi in order to provide him with "better security" after one of his guards was found with the keys to a car containing a bomb on Friday.

'Consolidate gains'

Mr Negroponte took advantage of a news conference in Baghdad to point out that the US troop surge had delivered "significant results" since it started in February.

Data released by the Iraqi interior, defence and health ministries on Saturday showed that 606 Iraqi civilians and security personnel were killed in bombings and shootings in November, continuing the downward trend of recent months.

If progress is not made on these fronts we risk falling back toward the more violent habits of the past John NegroponteUS Deputy Secretary of State

The figure, if confirmed, would be the lowest since February 2006, when an attack on the revered Shia shrine in Samarra set off a wave of sectarian violence in which thousands died.

Mr Negroponte said the improved security situation in Iraq should buy the government time to secure a settlement between the country's rival political and sectarian groups.

"Now progress on political reconciliation, including key national legislation as well as economic advances, is needed to consolidate the gains," he said.

"If progress is not made on these fronts we risk falling back toward the more violent habits of the past."

However, the BBC's Crispin Thorold in Baghdad says that reconciliation seems a distant prospect.

A number of key issues are still unresolved, our correspondent says, including the re-integration of former members of the Baath party into the government, the allocation of oil revenues and the status of the Kirkuk region.

'House arrest'

Sunday also saw Sunni Arab members of the Iraqi Accord Front boycotting parliament for a second day in a row over claims that Mr Dulaimi was under house arrest.

Adnan al-Dulaimi's party says his reputation is under attack

Mr Dulaimi has accused the Iraqi government of trying to silence him by deploying soldiers around his house for three days and stopping anyone from visiting him.

Later, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Mr Dulaimi had been taken to a hotel in the Green Zone in central Baghdad for his own safety.

"This move by the Iraqi government aims at protecting Mr Dulaimi and making sure he is safe because all his bodyguards were arrested," he said.

Mr Dabbagh told the AFP news agency that seven of the Sunni politician's bodyguards had tested positive for handling explosives after being detained in a joint Iraqi-US operation on Friday.

One of the bodyguards was also found with the keys to a car containing a bomb.

Mr al-Dulaimi has denied any connection with the bomb, which he says could have been part of an attempt to kill him.