Iraqi leaders have been holding talks for the second day on Sunday, aiming at breaking the political deadlock that has paralyzed national reconciliation efforts and undermined the unity of the government.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, and President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, with the Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, Shiite Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, and Masoud Barzani, leader of the northern autonomous Kurdish region, have attended the meetings that kicked off on Saturday, official from Talabani's office said.
"The leaders meetings are devoted to discuss the possible means to solve outstanding issues and to take their decisions on the summit later," the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
"These are preparatory meetings before the summit," he said.
Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi said in a statement that the five leaders have achieved a breakthrough during the talks.
"We reached agreement on a number of issues, foremost of them is the agenda for the summit and who will attend the meeting," Hashemi said.
However, Hashemi denied that his participation in the talks would mean that his Iraqi Islamic Party, which is part of the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front, is joining the Shiite and Kurdish alliance.
"There is no intention for the Iraqi Islamic Party, for the time being at least, to join the four-party alliance," Hashemi told the pan-Arab al-Jazeera news channel.
On Thursday, Talabani and Maliki announced the formation of an alliance grouping the two main Shiite parties, Dawa party and Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, and the two main Kurdish parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdish Democratic Party (PDK).
The four parties signed a three-page agreement of the new alliance, with the aim of pushing forward the political process in Iraq after the pullout of almost half of Maliki's cabinet members.
"This agreement represents a first step which would leave the door open for whoever would agree with us to allow a movement for the political process," Maliki said.
On Saturday, U.S. President George W. Bush said the Iraqi government still had "many important measures" to resolve in order to meet political goals.
"The Iraqi government in Baghdad has many important measures left to address, such as reforming the de-Baathification laws, organizing provincial elections, and passing a law to formalize the sharing of oil revenues," he said.
Source: Xinhua
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