UN urges Iraqi government to halt slide into civil war

Baghdad: A UN envoy urged Iraq's government to halt a slide into civil war and stop the "cancer" of sectarianism from destroying the country.

As a curfew on Baghdad was extended until Monday, derailing a trip to Iran by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, the United Nations' representative said car bombs on Thursday that killed more than 200 Shiites and "blind acts of revenge" were "tearing apart the very political and social fabric of Iraq".

"No country could tolerate such a cancer in its body politic," Ashraf Qazi said in a statement on Saturday.

"These tragic incidents occurred in the context of an increasingly vicious cycle of sectarian violence that is tearing apart the very political and social fabric of Iraq," said the statement.

"Iraq would continue to descend into a civil war situation and people would become the victims of an unprecedented human rights catastrophe," it warned.

Qazi said that the government, politicians and people must show their determination through real national dialogue "to prevent extremists from destroying Iraq".

Neighbours of the war-torn country should come to Baghdad's help, he said, because chaos in Baghdad served no country's interests.

Talabani was to have flown to Tehran on Sunday, but his spokesman Hiwa Othman said it was now hoped the trip could go ahead on Monday after a third day of curfew in Baghdad. Talabani had said he would not go to Tehran until Baghdad airport reopens.

The president met government leaders again on Saturday evening to discuss how to resolve the current crisis and avert a worsening of violence. An official familiar with the talks said a joint statement on security measures would be made on Sunday.

Talabani's visit to anti-American Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom Washington accuses of backing militant fellow Shiites in Iraq, is part of efforts to involve its neighbours in efforts to prevent civil war. Othman said that contrary to some speculation, Syria's president would not join the meeting.

U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to meet Maliki in Jordan on Wednesday, despite a threat by a key Maliki ally, radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, to boycott the government if it goes ahead.

The Shiite-led government has called for calm, desperate to avert the sort of sharp escalation in violence that followed an attack on a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February.