Step up peace efforts, Rice urges Al Maliki

Sharm Al Shaikh: The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, told Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki here on Wednesday that he needs to work harder to convince Iraq's Arab neighbours of his commitment to heal sectarian divides and ensure more participation by minority Sunnis.

On the eve of an international conference the Bush administration hopes will lead to increased financial and political backing from the region for Baghdad, Rice told Al Maliki in a 90-minute meeting that "progress has to take place as rapidly as possible" toward political reconciliation among Iraq's ethnic and religious groups, a senior administration official said.

For their part, the official said, Arab governments need to show more appreciation of the problems Al Maliki faces and the progress, however slow, he has made. Iraq's Sunni Arab neighbours, including Saudi Arabia, do not understand "what's really happening in Iraq", he said.

The official, who briefed reporters after attending the Rice-Al Maliki meeting, said negative Arab views of Al Maliki's Shiite-dominated government are skewed by a fixation on the Sunni-Shiite divide, based on information from "interested parties" inside Iraq.

While the administration shares their concerns about Sunni minority rights and Shiite Iran's growing influence in Baghdad, he said, the answer "is not exclusion, passivity and ostracisation of Iraq" by its neighbours.

Much of the attention around the two-day gathering has focused on whether Rice will meet with her counterparts from Syria and Iran. Rice had said she "wouldn't rule out" a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al Mua'allem.

Rice was less optimistic about substantive talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, saying it was "probably better not to speculate on whether this will happen." While she said she was a "polite person" and would not turn away from an encounter with Mottaki, "we're not seeking a bilateral session."

Syria will also figure in an informal meeting today, on the sidelines of the Iraq conference, to be held by Rice and envoys from other major powers involved in finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Today, senior officials from 60 governments and organisations, including 30 foreign ministers from the Middle East, Europe and Asia, will meet to approve an Iraq compact, under which Iraq is to pledge to undertake specific economic reforms over the next five years in exchange for debt relief and foreign aid.