Iraq president extends hand to insurgents

CAIRO, Monday (AFP, Reuters) Iraqi President Jalal Talabani extended a hand to insurgents during reconciliation talks between the war-torn country's factions, even as violence continued to rage at home.

"If those who call themselves the Iraqi resistance want to contact me, I will welcome them," Talabani, a Kurd, told reporters on the second day of the Arab League-sponsored meetings in Cairo. During the opening session on Saturday, Talabani had excluded jihadists and criminals from the entourage of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein from talks.

"To those who took up arms to end the occupation, we say that the solution will not come through weapons but through political dialogue and democratic means," he said Sunday.

Talabani made a distinction between those he described as "terrorists", Saddamists and people who fight to oust occupation forces.

It was not clear whether his comments on Sunday amounted to an invitation to members of the former Baathist regime, but his comments on Sunday signalled a more conciliatory tone after the talks' stormy start.However, the Iraq operation of Al-Qaeda, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, rejected the call for dialogue by Talabani, saying "the sword and blood" were the only ways forward.

"There will only be between us the dialogue of the sword and of blood that they will pay as the price for what they have done with their own hands," the group said in a statement whose authenticity could not be verified.

It said that the goal of the conference was to "push Sunni Muslims into accepting their dirty political game and to evade the project of jihad," holy struggle.

Meanwhile Iraqi politicians from across the spectrum reached tentative agreement at a conference in Cairo on Sunday that violence should stop, detainees go free and U.S. forces gradually withdraw.

The value of the accord was doubtful in the absence of anyone representing the mainly Sunni insurgents fighting the U.S.-backed Shi'ite and Kurdish government though President Jalal Talabani offered to talk to them if they contacted him.

The agreement, in a draft final statement, fell short of the demand of the Sunni Muslim minority for a firm timetable for a U.S. withdrawal, but did give a commitment to release Sunni men who the Sunnis say are held without charge and tortured.

Delegates said the compromise emerged at negotiations attended by the host of the reconciliation conference, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, and the U.N. representative in Iraq, Ashraf Qazi. The meeting ends on Monday.

No one representing the insurgents fighting to drive out U.S. forces and overthrow the government was present, and the al Qaeda organisation in Iraq dismissed both the conference and the participants. "The aim is to make Sunni Muslims accept the (American) dirty political game and join in against the jihad project which is beginning to give results," it said in a statement.

"The Crusaders should know that these dwarves (in Cairo) can't walk in the streets of Baghdad, except in their fortified headquarters or convoys," it added.

After a stormy opening day on Saturday, the mood at the conference turned positive on Sunday and politicians from all parties sounded more optimistic.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, a Shi'ite Islamist, had his first ever meeting with Harith al-Dhari of the Sunni Muslim Clerics Association, helping to break the ice between two factions which have diametrically opposite views.

Dhari's spokesman said he welcomed Talabani's openness to contacts with the armed opposition, calling it "a correct step which reflects the reality on the ground in Iraq".

Turkoman politician Abbas al-Bayyati said of the draft "It is included in the text that an immediate withdrawal is not required right now but that it should be done in a gradual way."

"All of those at the conference, even those who are strongly against the occupation, have agreed that the immediate withdrawal of the occupation forces will leave a great void in Iraqi security and create more problems than it solves," added Haider Al-Ibadi, an adviser to Jaafari.

Amer al-Tamimi, who helped draft the text, said it also linked withdrawal to the process of building up Iraqi security forces - the position taken by the Iraqi government and by the United States, which has 160,000 troops in Iraq.