By Wisam Mohammed
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's main Sunni Arab political blocsaid on Wednesday it had suspended talks to rejoin theShi'ite-led government after a disagreement with Prime MinisterNuri al-Maliki over a cabinet post.
Persuading the bloc to rejoin has been a main aim of U.S.policy and is widely regarded as a vital step in reconcilingIraq's factions after years of conflict. Sunni Arabs havelittle voice in a cabinet dominated by Shi'ites and Kurds.
The breakdown in talks could undermine Washington's effortsto prod Sunni Arab states to offer more support to Iraq'sgovernment at a conference in Sweden on Thursday as a way ofcountering Shi'ite Iran's growing influence in Iraq.
"We have suspended negotiations with the government andpulled out our candidates," said Salim al-Jibouri, spokesmanfor the Accordance Front. He said the decision was taken afterMaliki objected to a candidate for a cabinet position.
The Accordance Front pulled out of Maliki's national unitygovernment in August, demanding the release of mainly SunniArab detainees in Iraq's jails and calling for a greater say insecurity matters.
Ali al-Adeeb, a member of parliament and senior member ofMaliki's Dawa party, played down the suspension of talks.
"I don't think that this will lead to the total withdrawalof the Accordance Front from the government," he told Reuters.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said sheunderstood that discussions were continuing.
"I don't think that those reports are necessarily accurate.It is our understanding that the discussions continue aboutrejoining.
"I think there is a lot of politics going on, which is notunknown in democratic states," said Rice on the eve of theinternational conference on Iraq's development in Stockholm.
Since becoming prime minister in May 2006, Maliki has facedconstant criticism from Iraq's minority Sunni Arab communitythat he has promoted the interests of the majority Shi'itesover the country's other sectarian and ethnic groups.
He is under pressure to hold together several sides inIraq's complex conflict -- sectarian violence, a Sunniinsurgency, al Qaeda and tens of thousands of impoverishedShi'ite gunmen loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
U.S. forces said they killed 10 people on Wednesday whothey accused of planting roadside bombs or of carrying outother "militant activities" in the New Baghdad area of thecapital, a stronghold of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia.
The U.S. military said the 10 were members of "specialgroups", military jargon for rogue units of the Mehdi Armyaccused of receiving funds and training from Iran.
CRACKDOWN ON MILITIAS
Maliki won praise from Iraq's Sunni Arab politicians afterlaunching a crackdown on Shi'ite militias claiming allegianceto Sadr in Baghdad and the southern city of Basra in lateMarch.
The Mehdi Army has been keeping a low profile since Iraqisecurity forces took over Sadr's Baghdad bastion, Sadr City,under a truce agreement last week.
A Mehdi Army leader in the New Baghdad district, Abu Ali,said the agreement only committed the militia not to fightIraqi security forces who entered militia strongholds, not U.S.soldiers. He said the militia would defend itself against U.S.forces who entered the district.
The Iraqi Army has seized a large arsenal of weapons inSadr City including 88 roadside bombs, 201 rocket-propelledgrenades, 216 AK-47 assault rifles, 10 sniper rifles, 144mortar rounds and 107 anti-tank mines, the U.S. military saidon Wednesday.
Sadr pulled his bloc out of Maliki's government last yearin protest at his refusal to negotiate a timetable for a U.S.troop withdrawal. On Tuesday, he called for a mass protestagainst negotiations between Washington and Baghdad on keepingU.S. troops in Iraq beyond 2008.
Iraq plans to hold a national census next year, paving theway for parliamentary polls expected by the end of 2009,Planning Minister Ali Baban told Reuters in an interview.
A lack of census data has fed rancorous disputes over thesize of Iraq's ethnic and religious groups. This has affectedallocations of its oil wealth to different regions and delayedthe passage of this year's $48 billion budget.
In a sign of the high cost of U.S. military forces in Iraqand Afghanistan, the Pentagon said it plans to shift $9.7billion of its overall budget to pay for war operations butwarned it will run out of money if the U.S. Congress does notapprove more funding by mid-July.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Maliki will chairthe conference in Sweden on Thursday, aimed at assessingprogress in implementing what was agreed at a meeting in Egyptlast year to help Iraq rebuild after five years of war.
The United States has been pressing Sunni Arab governmentsto forgive debts and open diplomatic missions.
A delegation from Iraq's western Anbar province, led byGovernor Mamoon al-Alwani, left for the United States onWednesday for talks with U.S. government officials on handingover security for the province to Iraqi forces, said Jamalal-Mashadani, spokesman for the provincial government.
(Additional reporting by Khalid al-Ansary, Aseel Kami andAhmed Rasheed and Kristin Roberts in Washington, Writing byMichael Georgy, Tim Cocks and Adrian Croft; Editing by CharlesDick)
