US embassy in indirect talks with insurgents

Baghdad The US Embassy has held indirect talks with members of violent Iraqi insurgent groups, a US official said on Wednesday, edging back from a long-standing position not to negotiate with "terrorists" or those who have American or Iraqi blood on their hands.

"People stop shooting at us, and we and I think the Iraqi government are ready to engage," said the US official, who spoke to a group of Western reporters on condition of anonymity.

"People willing to condemn the use of violence, particularly against the Iraqi people, we're willing to engage."

The United States is hoping to persuade Iraq's insurgents to lay down their weapons and join the political process.

But the insurgency is thought to be comprised of different groups of fighters, and it was unclear how broad a section has been involved in the contacts with the United States.

No details on the substance of the talks were made public, and it was unclear whether they had yielded any results.

Reports of meetings between figures associated with the insurgency and US officials began emerging earlier this year, but US authorities previously have declined to provide details.

US military commanders in war-torn swaths of Iraq have long sent olive branches and ultimatums to militants through local tribal and religious leaders.

A Pentagon official, who declined to be identified by name because of the subject's sensitivity, described those interactions as informal and insubstantial. "There has been some dialogue with these guys, but no negotiations," the official said.

The talks confirmed by the US official in Baghdad on Wednesday appeared to be more formal contacts between insurgents and American diplomats, mainly using Sunni Arab political and religious figures as intermediaries.

Abdul Salaam Kubaysi, a leader of the Muslim Scholars Association, an influential Sunni Arab group, said he knew of at least three instances where figures close to the insurgency had approached the US Embassy about the prospects of cutting a deal, the latest about four days ago.

More than 1,680 US troops, and thousands of Iraqis, have been killed as Iraq's insurgency has raged.

For months, Iraq's interim leaders have been in contact with representatives of insurgent groups, trying to bring them into the political process.

But the new participation of the Americans in such talks might help convince the guerrillas that the negotiations could have substantial results.

The involvement of diplomats in indirect negotiations with insurgents may also be a signal that the United States is subtlety shifting to a more pragmatic and less rigid policy as casualties continue to mount more than two years after the March 2003 invasion.

The discussions could also indicate a new willingness on the part of guerrillas to lay down their weapons.