Blasts mark opening of Iraq political conference

BAGHDAD - Blasts rocked Baghdad Sunday as Iraqi leaders met to pick an assembly to oversee their interim government, highlighting the problems the country faces on its stuttering road to democracy.

Smoke was seen rising near the Rasheed hotel on the edge of the Green Zone compound, where the conference had opened earlier Sunday.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blasts but insurgents have regularly fired mortar bombs and rockets at the Green Zone that houses the government's headquarters and the US embassy.

The opening of the conference also came under the prospect of renewed fighting in the holy city of Najaf, where Shi'ite militiamen were in a standoff with US and Iraqi forces after the collapse of peace talks aimed at ending fighting that has killed hundreds and threatened to undermine the authority of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

Mehdi militia of radical Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr roamed the streets and police chief Ghaleb al-Jazaeri told all media to leave the southern city by midday (0800 GMT), citing security concerns. He did not elaborate.

Under tight security and a curfew in parts of Baghdad, 1,300 political and religious leaders gathered for a three-day conference in the fortified Green Zone compound to choose the 100-member assembly.

The assembly, or national council, will oversee the interim government until elections are held in January.

"Your presence here today is the biggest challenge to the forces of darkness that want to tear this country apart. This is not the end of the road, it is the first step on the way to democracy," Allawi said in opening remarks.

Police have blocked off roads and closed at least one bridge over the nearby Tigris River to try to prevent insurgents disrupting the event.

The conference has been beset by boycotts from key players such as Sadr and the Muslim Clerics Association, an influential grouping of Sunni religious leaders.

The conference was due to open in late July but was delayed after the United Nations demanded more time for preparations. Some delegates taking part have accused the government of stacking the slate with Allawi supporters.

"The political parties in power now have the overwhelming majority of delegates. They left no room for independents," said Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum, a leading Shi'ite cleric and a former president of the now defunct Iraqi Governing Council.

Government officials have said Iraqi and US forces would resume military operations against the Mehdi Army in Najaf. There was at least one minor skirmish Sunday but no major attack.

Sadr has vowed to fight to the death.

The fighting in Najaf has spread to seven other Shi'ite cities in southern and central Iraq.

An uneasy truce has held there since Friday, when US troops and tanks loosened their noose around the Imam Ali Mosque and a vast ancient cemetery nearby.

Thousands of protesters from other parts of southern Iraq have streamed to Najaf and joined Sadr in the mosque, promising to act as human shields should an attack on the holiest Shi'ite Islamic site in Iraq take place.

Iraq has said only local forces would enter the shrine.

Some 2,000 US servicemen and 1,800 Iraqi security men are deployed around Najaf, a city of 600,000 south of Baghdad.

JANUARY ELECTIONS

Iraqi officials have insisted that problems getting the political conference off the ground would not mean January's landmark elections would also be delayed, even though the specter of violence hangs over the polls.

The conference brings together delegates from across Iraq, attempting to represent the country's political parties, non-governmental groups and religious and tribal bodies.

Once chosen, the national council will have the power to veto legislation with a two-thirds majority, approve Iraq's 2005 budget, and appoint a new prime minister or president should either resign or die in office.

Allawi has said the political process was open to all. But Sadr, buoyed by growing public support even from Iraqis who oppose his radical views, has been in no mood to cut a deal.

US forces say they have killed more than 360 Sadr fighters so far in Najaf. Sadr's spokesmen say far fewer have died in the second rebellion by the militia in four months.

A Dutch soldier was killed and five seriously wounded on Saturday evening in a shooting incident in Ar Rumaythah, just north of Samawa in southern Iraq, the Dutch government said.

In fresh threats to the US-led coalition in Iraq, a group claiming links to al Qaeda called on its fighters to attack "all targets" in Italy after it ignored the group's Aug. 15 deadline for Italian troops to leave Iraq, an internet statement said.

The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades said Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was one of its main targets, adding that its forthcoming attacks would not stop until "Iraq is secure."

Herald Feature: Iraq