Deal with Iraqi rebels possible

Iraq's President said yesterday he and US officials had met with insurgents and that a deal with some groups to end violence could be reached.

Though US and Iraqi officials have spoken before of contacts with Sunni Arab rebels, the statement by Jalal Talabani came as Iraq's various factions negotiate on a new government and were among the strongest yet that some groups involved in the three-year-old war may be ready to lay down their arms.

Iraq's Parliament, elected in December, said it would meet for the third time on Wednesday, but Shi'ite Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki is not expected to unveil his Cabinet line-up so soon, an aide to Mr Maliki said.

In a statement, Mr Talabani said: "I believe that a deal could be reached with seven armed groups that visited me."

He added that US officials took part in the discussions in the President's Kurdish home region in northern Iraq.

Insurgents in the Sunni heartland observed an informal truce during December's parliamentary election, allowing a big turnout among minority Sunnis, who had previously boycotted the US- backed political process.

A US embassy spokesman said the US position has always been to try to engage insurgents into joining the political process who are not associated with Saddam Hussein or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al Qaeda leader in Iraq.

Mr Talabani said: "There are other groups, excluding the Saddamists and Zarqawi-types, who are involved in military operations to remove the occupiers and these are the ones who we are seeking to hold a dialogue with and to include them in the political process."

Mr Talabani, who was re-elected head of state by Iraq's new Parliament last week, said the talks took place in the northern region of Kurdistan. He did not say when the talks occurred.

His spokesman said they were "recent". He did not name the groups involved in the talks.

Parliament designated Mr Maliki a week ago to head Iraq's first full-term government since the fall of Saddam, ending a four-month deadlock.

Mr Maliki, a member of the dominant Shi'ite Islamist Alliance bloc, is in talks with other factions to form a government made up of Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds, seen as the best hope to avert a sectarian civil war.