Sunni Front agrees to attend Iraq crisis talks

Iraq's main Sunni bloc has agreed Sunday to participate in crisis talks called by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, scheduled for later this week in an effort to save his fraying national unity government.

Seventeen ministerial posts in his government are empty or filled by members boycotting cabinet meetings amid protests by many parties, especially the main Sunni Arab bloc, at Maliki's faltering program of national reconciliation. But the Iraqi Accord Front agreed to participate in the summit, despite its decision to walk out of the government on August 1, effectively ending any claim by the Shiite-dominated coalition to be one of national unity.

"It (the summit) is not just a wish of the government but a wish of all the political parties, and has nothing to do with the Front's withdrawal," said Salim Abdullah, spokesman of the Front.

"We will participate in the meeting and discuss various issues, including those related to security and dealing with the militia."

The bloc has accused the government of failing to rein in Shiite militias accused of killing Sunni Arabs in the brutal Iraqi sectarian strife.

Also on Sunday, Dulaimi issued an impassioned appeal for help from Arab countries against what he called Iranian-supported death squads waging "genocide" against Sunnis.

"Your brothers in Baghdad are facing an unprecedented campaign of genocide carried out by militias and death squads under Iranian direction, planning, support and weaponry," said the statement issued by his office and written in the name of Iraqi Sunnis.

"Your brothers are facing the most ugly injustice and persecution in the ancient and modern history of Iraq... that seeks to uproot the sons of Sunnis in Baghdad and make Iraq a village of Iran," it added.

"By God, it is a war that started in Baghdad and will not stop there. It will engulf any place where Arabic is spoken."

Dulaimi urged the Arab world at large to "stop the genocide crimes of Iran" to defend "the identity of Iraq and maintain Baghdad, as a bastion for the Arabs".

"Use all means to stand up to Iran, as you are its next target. It is trying to occupy your Iraq, the Gulf and all your countries," it added.

Maliki, a Shiite, last week held two days of talks in largely Shiite Iran, where he received a warm welcome and where he was quoted by Iranian state media as praising Iran's "constructive" role in "fighting terrorism in Iraq."

U.S. President George W. Bush swiftly took issue with that statement as U.S. authorities regularly accuse Iranians of arming, funding and training Iraqi extremist groups to carry out attacks in the war-ravaged country.

Earlier, Maliki had threatened to replace the Sunni lawmakers -- possibly with tribal sheikhs who have emerged in the past year at the helm of the first Sunni Arab armed groups loyal to the government and its U.S. allies.

Asked if he had agreed to give the sheikhs seats vacated by the Front, Maliki said: "There are people who have come forward and offered to be an alternative."

He added: "We all hope that this crisis will end and the problems be solved and the ministers return to their ministries. But if, God forbid, this does not happen, then we will go to the brothers who have come forward and choose replacements."

Hopes that Maliki's so-called unity coalition can be saved now depend on the senior leadership of the rival parties cutting a new power-sharing deal that can convince the bitter Sunni minority to return to the fold.

Maliki, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi, another Shiite, are expected to attend the crisis summit.

Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, the senior Sunni Arab in the government and a critic of Maliki's alleged sectarian bias whose presence would be considered crucial, has not yet made it explicitly clear whether he will attend.

Since the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003, Iraq has plunged into an abyss of overlapping civil conflicts that have divided its rival religious and ethnic communities, and left tens of thousands of civilians dead.

Shiite parties are suspicious of Sunni leaders whose minority sect dominated political power under executed former dictator Saddam Hussein and accuse them of supporting violent insurgent groups.

Sunni leaders accuse the Shiite parties of ties with powerful neighbor Iran and condemn their alleged complicity with Shiite militias..