Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said on Tuesday the Indonesian government was currently preparing a small team that would meet with certain elements in Iraq on efforts to bring about reconciliation between the two parties locked in sectarian conflict in the Middle Eastern country.

"We are now planning to send a small team to meet with some elements in Iraq. The team will consist of three persons, namely one person each from the country's largest Muslim organization

Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and the second largest Muslim organization Muhammaidiyah, as well as Alwi Shihab (the president's special envoy for Middle Eastern affairs)," he said.

The team was formed in pursuance of one of the recommendations of the Bogor Declaration adopted by Islamic leaders at their meeting on Iraq in Bogor, south of Indonesian capital Jakarta,

early this month.

He said the team would try to familiarize the parties in Iraq concerned with the idea that the U.S.-led forces must be withdrawn from Iraq.

"Government-to-government efforts are the first track. The second track meanwhile is approaching elements in Iraq. For the time being our focus will be on this track. Also to be developed is contact with Iraqi elements in neighboring countries," the minister was quoted by Antrara news agency as saying.

The meeting in Bogor on April 3-4 involved Sunni and Shi'ite leaders from eight countries, namely Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Malaysia, Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria, Indonesia and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

The meeting was initiated and facilitated by the Indonesian government in cooperation with the Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammaidiyah. Around 20 clerics from the Middle East attended the

meeting, including Sheikh Mohammad Mehdi Taskiri, a Shi'ite figure from Iran and Mahmood Al Sumai Dai, a Sunni figure from Iraq.

Source: Xinhua