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IRAQ: PRIME MINISTER TO CALL FOR REGIONAL MEETING December 6, 2006
Zainab Osman
(SomaliNet) Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, reversed course Tuesday and said his envoys will talk with Iraq's neighbors about the possibility of a regional conference on quelling the violence here, this met opposition by some key political allies.
Al-Maliki made the announcement as more than 100 people were killed or found dead in and around Baghdad, underscoring the urgency of finding a solution to the bloodshed.
The U.S. military said three more American troops had died Monday, two as a result of insurgent attacks and one in a traffic accident.
Despite a string of ambushes, mortar attacks and bombings Tuesday, the chief U.S. military spokesman told reporters that all of Iraq would be under Baghdad's control by the fall of 2007, with U.S. soldiers and Marines and other coalition forces playing a supporting role.
Al-Maliki, a Shiite, told reporters that his envoys would talk with other governments in the region, most of them Sunni-dominated, about how they might help establish security and stability in Iraq.
In recent days, President Jalal Talabani and a leading Shiite politician, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, have rejected U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan's proposal for a regional peace conference. Annan said such a gathering could be useful if the parties met outside Iraq.