Ryan Crocker, in his first news conference since arriving in Baghdad in March, said the months ahead for Shia prime minister Nuri al-Maliki's nearly one-year-old fractious government of Kurdish, Sunni Arab and Shia factions would be critical.
"The very definition of reconciliation means you've got to move away from an 'I win you lose' mentality to some form of broader accommodation," he said. US officials are frustrated by the reluctance of parties to compromise and by slow progress on a draft law on sharing oil revenues and rolling back a ban on former members of Saddam Hussein's party holding office that affects mainly Sunni Arabs.
Sunni Arabs, who were dominant before the US-led invasion in 2003, feel marginalised in the new political landscape in which Shias and minority Kurds, who were repressed under Saddam, have sought to cement their grip on power.
Mr Crocker warned that Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda was trying to trigger a fresh wave of violence between minority Sunnis and majority Shias in a campaign of suicide and car bombings that has killed hundreds of people over the past few weeks.
Car and suicide bombers killed up to 46 people in a series of attacks across Iraq last week, including one in a restaurant near the heavily-fortified Green Zone compound in Baghdad, where Crocker was giving his news conference.
In a new military tactic to stop the bombers, US troops have begun walling off some flashpoint neighbourhoods in Baghdad with concrete barriers, but the move has drawn sharp criticism from some Sunni and Shia political parties.
- (Reuters)