The New Nation - Internet Edition

BAGHDAD: The Shiite prime minister opened a national conference Tuesday aimed at reconciling the rival sects in Iraq, but the main Sunni bloc boycotted the proceedings - a sign of the deep schisms still facing this country.

The meeting began one day after a suicide bomber struck Shiite worshipers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, killing at least 50 people. The blast was the deadliest in a series of attacks Monday that left at least 79 Iraqis dead.

In his opening statement Tuesday, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki said reconciliation was not intended to harm the interests of any group but was "a boat that saves us and takes us to safety."

"From the first day, we said national reconciliation is not a political slogan, but a complete strategic vision to reconstruct Iraq," Maliki said. He acknowledged in a later briefing for reporters that much work remained to bridge divides in the country.

But underscoring the challenge, Saleem Abdullah, a spokesman for the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front, said the group would not participate in the meetings until Shiite lawmakers recognized the front's political aims.

"How we can attend a reconciliation meeting?" he said. "There are many points that are still not fulfilled."

The Sunni front maintains that Maliki is stonewalling them by failing to meet demands that include the release of security detainees not charged with specific crimes, disbanding Shiite militias and wider inclusion in decision-making on security issues.

Iraqi leaders also have made little progress in resolving sectarian disagreements over the fate of three former officials under Saddam Hussein who have been sentenced to death for their roles in a campaign that left about 180,000 Iraqi Kurds dead in the 1980s.

Maliki has been demanding that the death sentence against the three be carried out, but President Jalal Talabani, a Sunni Kurd, and one of his two deputies, Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, disagree. They say that one of the three, former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim al-Taie, should not be executed because he was a military member carrying out orders.

Last month, the presidential council said it had ratified the death sentence on another one of the three, Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as Chemical Ali.

Maliki stood his ground Tuesday. A statement by his office said all three, who are being held in a U.S.-run detention facility, must be handed over to have their sentences carried out.

In his address at the conference, Maliki noted that many in the government continued to doubt the success of reconciliation, but he urged lawmakers to view differences in opinion as political progress, not disagreement that threatened to unravel national unity.

A heated debate over differences, Maliki said, could open the door to foreign influence and compromise constitutional principles.

American military officials and Iraqi officials have identified Iranian influence in the dozens of bombings that occur in Iraq each month, including providing bomb-making materials to Shiite militias across the country.

The suicide bomber in Karbala, a woman, struck after worshipers gathered at a sacred site about 800 meters, or half a mile, from the shrine of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad who was killed in a 7th-century battle.

The conference comes after Vice President Dick Cheney and Senator John McCain visited Iraq separately to put a spotlight on security gains and stress Washington's commitment to fighting insurgents in the country.

Cheney spent Monday night at a U.S. military base in Balad, 80 kilometers north of Baghdad.

The national conference coincided with a United Nations report that record numbers of Iraqis sought asylum in the European Union last year, despite a sharp reduction in violence that followed the so-called surge in the number of U.S. troops deployed in Iraq.

Asylum requests from Iraqis rose to 38,286 in 2007 from 19,375 the year before, according to the report, making Iraqis the single largest group seeking refuge in the European Union. Maliki said Tuesday that Iraqi officials were working to bring Iraqi refugees home.

In other violence Tuesday, the explosion of a roadside bomb near a gas station in northern Baghdad killed three people, including two police officers, security officials said. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the attack.

A suicide car bombing outside an electronics store in Mosul, 360 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, killed three people and wounded 40, the U.S. military said. And unidentified gunmen killed two Awakening Council members in Beiji, 145 kilometers south of Mosul, the local police said.

In a separate statement, the U.S. military said it had killed seven suspected members of a suicide bombing cell and captured eight others Tuesday in northern and central Iraq.

(Source: International Herald Tribune)