Iraqi officials reach out to insurgents

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A senior Shiite cleric said Wednesday that Iraq's government has opened indirect communications with factions in the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency and is trying to persuade them to lay down their arms and return to Iraq's political fold.

Hummam Hammoudi, chairman of a committee named by the National Assembly to draw up Iraq's constitution, also said Sunni leaders have been given until June 15 to select 13 representatives to join the panel's work.

Experts have long maintained it will be difficult to defeat the insurgency with military means alone. They stress the need for Sunni Arab participation in the political system, adequate reconstruction funds and job creation as key to weakening support of the rebels.

Hammoudi gave few details on the nature of the contacts, which were confirmed by the spokesman for the Iraqi government.

"Some informal and limited contacts have been established with parties that we label as 'resistance,' so they can contribute to the drafting of the constitution," said Hammoudi, a senior member of Iraq's largest Shiite political party.

He said there had been an exchange of messages. "The contacts are becoming more promising and they give us reason to continue them," he added, without providing any details.

Al-Jaafari's Shiite predecessor, Ayad Allawi, was known to have opened channels to insurgents -- mainly through tribal leaders in predominantly Sunni areas -- and to have offered amnesty. But the effort had little impact.

Hammoudi said the new contacts were being cultivated by Sunni Arab members of al-Jaafari's Cabinet as well as Sunni community leaders known to have openings to insurgent groups. He declined to identify which Cabinet members were involved.

Government spokesman Laith Kuba and a key Sunni Arab legislator, Adnan al-Janabi, confirmed the contacts.

Kuba told the AP the overtures recently yielded "a step forward," but would not elaborate. Al-Janabi, one of only 17 Sunni Arabs in the 275-seat parliament, said the response from the insurgents was "positive." He also would not discuss specifics.

Both, however, made clear the contacts did not include radical Islamic groups such as terrorist chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq, which has been blamed for some of the worst bombings, kidnappings and other attacks.

Most insurgents are thought to be Sunni Arabs loyal to Saddam Hussein and hardcore members of his Baath party, who are angry over losing the dominance they held over the Shiite majority and Kurds. But there also are groups fighting for nationalist reasons or for religious motives as professed by al-Zarqawi's group.

Many Sunni Arabs, who account for 15 percent to 20 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, did not participate in the Jan. 30 election. Shiites and Kurds ended up with nearly all the seats, but their leaders have sought to draw Sunnis into government.

Hammoudi's 55-legislator committee is supposed to draft a constitution by Aug. 15. The charter would go to the voters in a referendum two months later and, if approved, serve as the basis for December elections.

Hammoudi said he told Sunni Arab leaders they could hold caucuses, in Baghdad and in the four provinces where Sunnis are a majority, to choose 13 people for his committee.

Since those representatives won't be elected legislators, they will have no voting rights on the charter panel, and a separate committee will be created to include them, Hammoudi said. That 68-member panel will decide by consensus and its conclusions will be adopted by the parliamentary group, he said.

Hammoudi said his committee has agreed on the core principles for the constitution, including federalism, a long-standing demand of the Kurdish minority, respect for human rights and pluralism.

The role of Islam could prove more contentious, but Hammoudi said he expected a stipulation making Islam the main source of law and a provision that the religion's tenets be respected in legislation should satisfy Islamists.

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Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.