Iraqi Sunnis meet US offical over poll boycott

An influential group of Iraqi Sunni Muslim clerics have offered to call off an election boycott in return for a US timetable …

An influential group of Iraqi Sunni Muslim clerics have offered to call off an election boycott in return for a US timetable for withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

The offer, made in a meeting with a senior US embassy official, came just three weeks before the election, amid a flurry of talks by Iraqi politicians to bridge sectarian splits threatening to undermine the poll and fuel violence.

Chances of Washington setting a schedule for the withdrawal of roughly 150,000 US troops are slim.

An US embassy spokesman said: "We have no intention to establish a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq at present. The Iraqi government agrees."

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He declined to name the US official who discussed Sunni participation but said it was not ambassador Mr John Negroponte.

The talks with the Muslim Clerics' Association suggest efforts are being made to heal rifts over US operations in Sunni areas and coax the once-dominant minority to take part in the political process.

The association, which is believed to have links to some insurgents and has helped negotiate the release of foreign hostages in the past, has always said it would not field candidates for elections while foreign troops remained in Iraq.

The debate over the election has exposed divisions between Sunnis, who have felt increasingly marginalised since the United States overthrew fellow Sunni Saddam Hussein, and Iraq's long-oppressed Shia majority, which is keen that a poll likely to cement its increased power take place on time.