World

Iraqi Leader Considers Regional Conference

December 5, 2006 / 6:09 AM EST / CBS/AP

In a dramatic reversal, Iraq's prime minister announced Tuesday he will dispatch envoys to neighboring countries to explore the possibility of a regional conference on ending the violence here despite opposition to the plan by some key political allies.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made the announcement as more than 100 more people were killed or found dead in Baghdad and surrounding areas, underscoring the urgency of finding a solution to the bloodshed.

In addition, the U.S. military said three more American troops had died the day before — two as a result of hostile action and one in a traffic accident.

Nevertheless, the chief U.S. military spokesman predicted that all of Iraq would be under Iraqi control by the fall of 2007, with U.S. and other coalition forces playing a supporting role.

During a press conference, al-Maliki said the envoys would exchange views with the mostly Sunni-dominated governments in the region and discuss how they could contribute to building security and stability in Iraq after months of rising sectarian violence.

"After the political climate is cleared, we will call for the convening of a regional conference in which these countries that are keen on the stability and security of Iraq will participate," the Shiite leader said.

Meanwhile, Baghdad is only growing more segregated, CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports. As sectarian violence and threats escalate in certain neighborhoods, the Sunnis have drained into Baghdad's southwest corner, while the Shiites congregate in the north and east.

Although al-Maliki's statement fell short of an unequivocal call for a conference, it was nonetheless surprising, considering past Iraqi resistance to bringing outsiders into the search for peace.

In other developments:

Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says defense experts have told House Democrats there are "no easy answers in Iraq." Pelosi and other top Democrats attended a closed forum on the situation in Iraq. After the session, the California lawmaker vowed not to cut off funding for U.S. troops in Iraq, saying she'd establish a commission to investigate "waste, fraud and abuse" associated with the U.S. mission in Iraq.

Suspected Sunni extremists killed 15 Shiite government workers in an attack on their minibus in north Baghdad, the government said. Another 15 people were killed when a pair of car bombs exploded in a commercial district of the capital, police said.

Saddam Hussein challenged the chief judge in his Kurdish genocide trial Tuesday, telling him in a letter that he no longer wants to attend the hearings and that he was ready to face the consequences. In a handwritten Arabic statement made available to The Associated Press, Saddam cited what he claimed were repeated "insults" by the chief judge, Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, and prosecutors trying him for his role in the 1987-88 military campaign, code-named Operation Anfal.

At least 15 others were killed in shootings and bombings elsewhere, and four bodies were pulled from the Tigris River south of the capital. Police also found the tortured bodies of 60 people who had been bound, blindfolded, then shot and left in different parts of Baghdad over the past 24 hours, police Lt. Mohammed Khayoun of said.

One American soldier was killed Monday and five were wounded when extremists fired on a U.S. patrol in northeastern Baghdad, the U.S. command said. Also Monday, a soldier from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, died of wounds suffered in a blast in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad.

A third soldier from the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) was killed Monday in a traffic accident north of Camp Adder, which is 200 miles southwest of Baghdad, the military said. The deaths raised to at least 2,905 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

In recent days, President Jalal Talabani and a leading Shiite politician Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim had rejected a suggestion for an international conference by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who said such a gathering could be useful if the political parties involved met outside Iraq.

Al-Maliki said he was open to such a conference but he wanted it to take place in Iraq, and he said its proposed solutions should conform to "what the national unity government wants."

In Washington, the White House reacted positively to al-Maliki's announcement.

"It's a good idea for the Iraqis to be involved in working with their neighbors on issues of regional security," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

The prime minister also said a frequently delayed national reconciliation conference would convene later this month. He added that he planned to shortly announce a reshuffle of his six-month-old Cabinet to boost its "effectiveness and strength." He gave no further details.

Al-Maliki's remarks were made a day before the Iraq Study Group, headed by former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, a Democrat from Indiana, is to release recommendations on changing U.S. strategy in Iraq.

They are expected to include a suggestion to engage Iraq's neighbors, including U.S. adversaries Iran and Syria, in the search for an end to the violence in Iraq. Al-Maliki did not say whether envoys would visit those two countries.

Despite his conditional support for a conference, al-Maliki was careful not to commit himself unequivocally, presumably because of opposition among his own allies.

But with pressure mounting to end the conflict, the prime minister may have felt he could not reject such a call outright. Instead, his conditions appeared aimed at limiting the scope of the conference, raising the possibility it might not take place soon.

Arab countries like Egypt generally favor such a conference, in part because they increasingly fear the rise of Shiite power in Iraq and the possible growing influence of Shiite-dominated Iran.

But Iraq's Shiites, who dominate the unity government, fear pressure from Sunni-dominated countries to make concessions to Iraq's Sunni minority, which launched the insurgency against the U.S.-led coalition three years ago.

Such a conference would likely increase efforts by Iran and Syria to increase their influence in Iraq.

Only last week, Iran invited the leaders of Syria and Iraq to come for a summit on Iraq's future but Syria did not accept. At the meeting in Tehran between Iraqi and Iranian leaders, Iranian officials said the only way to stabilize Iraq was to pull out U.S. troops.

The U.S. maintains about 140,000 troops in Iraq and is considering changing its strategic course in the country.

Robert Gates, the White House choice to be the next defense secretary, conceded during his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq and warned that if that country is not stabilized in the next year or two it could lead to a "regional conflagration." He later said he believes the United States is neither winning nor losing, "at this point."

U.S. spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told reporters that efforts to transfer responsibility to the Iraqis was moving forward and that all of the country was expected to be under Iraqi government control by the fall of next year.

"We would expect to see the entire country having reached provincial Iraqi control by early fall of next year," Caldwell said. "We should see the complete transfer of command and control of all Iraqi army divisions by late spring, early summer."

He said this is part of an accelerated timetable discussed by President Bush and al-Maliki last week in Jordan.