Iraqi armed rebels 'ready for peace'

THE Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, claimed a peace deal with seven armed Sunni rebel groups was within reach after he met their representatives yesterday.

A spokesman for the president's office said Mr Talabani was optimistic that they would agree to lay down their arms.

"I think we may reach an agreement with seven armed groups that visited me," his office said in a statement.

Mr Talabani's spokesman, Kamran Qaradaghi, refused to identify the seven groups, although they were believed to be Sunni Arab insurgents.

It was the first time a senior Iraqi official had acknowledged meeting figures from such rebel groups, although United States officials say privately they have talked with Iraqis claiming to have contacts with insurgents.

Last year, Mr Talabani, a Kurd, offered to meet representatives of rebel groups, except those linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq or run by those loyal to Iraq's former president Saddam Hussein.

Yesterday's statement said Mr Talabani revealed his hopes for a peace deal during a cultural festival in Kurdistan, the Kurdish-self ruled area in the north.

Mr Talabani said US officials had met with "some armed groups," but his spokesman denied there were any Americans present during the meeting with the seven groups.

The statement also quoted Mr Talabani as saying al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had declared a "genocide against the Iraqi population".

He said: "But there are groups other than the Saddamists and Zarqawists who joined the armed operations to fight the occupation. We are trying to have a dialogue with them to join the political process."

Meanwhile, violence in Iraq saw ten people killed in bombs and drive-by shootings. The bodies of seven Iraqi men who had apparently been kidnapped and tortured in captivity were also found in three separate areas of Baghdad.

Yesterday's deadliest attack involved a roadside bomb that exploded on a highway south of the capital, killing three security contractors and wounding two.

Police said the casualties were all British, but the Foreign Office denied this, confirming only that one of the wounded was from the UK.

Despite the violence, Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister- designate, continued to meet politicians to choose his cabinet for the country's national unity government.