Iraq: The US ambassador to Iraq pressed the country's divided leaders to end a political deadlock that has stalled the formation of a grand coalition which Washington sees as its best hope for a troop withdrawal.
As the Shia Alliance said it would not succumb to pressure from Kurds, Sunnis and others to drop its nomination for prime minister, Zalmay Khalilzad called for a special conference of leaders from all sides to break the stalemate.
"We are focusing on a national unity government because without it Iraq would face disaster," President Jalal Talabani told Arabiya television. "To avoid such a disaster, all our efforts are aimed at getting all sides to participate in a national unity government."
Three months after the December elections, the US is flexing its diplomatic muscle for the creation of a unity government that could tackle the threat of civil war and foster stability, allowing it to start pulling out its 130,000 troops.
In an interview with Time magazine, Mr Khalilzad, who has been meeting all factions, said he would push the idea of a special conference over the next few days so Iraqi leaders could arrive at a common political agenda.
"I believe that if we get - when we get - the national unity government, when we have ministries that are run by competent ministers, and as we get into the next phase of our Sunni outreach . . . I see a set of circumstances that would allow for a significant withdrawal of our forces."
Mr Khalilzad, a former envoy to his native Afghanistan, told Time he would advocate a new initiative: locking the officials up in a room and not letting them out until they sorted out their differences. The embassy said the venue would be in Iraq.
Violence continued yesterday, the Muslim day of prayer.
A suicide truck bomb struck a checkpoint manned by US soldiers and Iraqi forces in the Sunni stronghold of Falluja, killing at least 11 people, including five police officers, police said. There was no immediate word from the US military.
Two policemen were killed and three were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in Tikrit. A US tank was set ablaze when a roadside bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad. The tank crew was not injured.
Iraq's justice minister said Iraqi authorities would not use Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison as a detention facility after the US military ends operations there in the next few months.
"There will be no detainees in Abu Ghraib," Abd al-Hussein Shandel said, rejecting suggestions by US officials that Iraq might continue to use it as a jail.
"It will just be used as a storage facility for the justice ministry," he said of the prison that was a torture centre under Saddam Hussein and became a symbol of shame for America after the publication of photographs of abuse of prisoners by US guards.
In a surprise announcement, the US military said on Thursday it planned to shut Abu Ghraib in the next two to three months after transferring remaining detainees elsewhere.
In Jordan yesterday, former US attorney general Ramsey Clark said that hanging Saddam would bring new sectarian bloodshed.
Mr Clark, who is part of Saddam's defence team, said: "There are few facts that could greater inflame passions and divide irreconcilably the people of Iraq than a conviction and severe punishment, especially execution, of Saddam Hussein."
- (Reuters)