US says it's willing to free more Iraqi prisoners

BAGHDAD, Jul 1 (Reuters) Nearly 3,000 Iraqi prisoners have been released from U S-run prisons in Iraq under a national reconciliation plan and U S authorities are willing to free more, the US ambassador said today.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite Muslim, hopes the release of the mostly Sunni Muslim prisoners will weaken support for the insurgency among disaffected minority Sunnis.

''As the reconciliation project proposed by Prime Minister Maliki moves forward, we are prepared in consultation with the Iraqi leaders to make future prisoner releases and to take other concrete steps to facilitate reconciliation,'' U S Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said in a statement.

The United States is holding 12,000 Iraqi prisoners, most of whom are being held without charge.

Leaders of the Sunni community, dominant under Saddam Hussein but now the backbone of the insurgency against the Shi'ite-led government, have long demanded the release of prisoners.

Maliki, who last month unveiled the national reconciliation plan, has offered an ''olive branch'' to rebel groups who lay down their arms and join the political process. But he has ruled out dialogue with Saddam Hussein loyalists and al Qaeda militants.

REUTERS SHB HT1625