Iraq's neighbours back reconciliation efforts

TEHRAN, July 9 (Reuters) Iraq's neighbours and other Arab states said today they backed an Iraqi reconciliation plan to quell violence and called on all Iraqis to join the process.

But Egypt, one of nine states at the meeting in Tehran, said it would not mediate with insurgent groups. An Iraqi official said earlier some groups had asked Arab states for mediation.

Iraq has appealed to its neighbours and other Arab states to help improve security and to support the new government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and its efforts to end fighting, which flared up again in Baghdad as the ministers met.

''The ministers expressed their full support for the national reconciliation plan ... They called on all Iraqi groups to participate and contribute actively within the framework of the ... plan,'' the foreign ministers said in a final statement.

Maliki's reconciliation plan includes an offer to negotiate with Sunni rebels and free hundreds of prisoners to draw members of the disgruntled Sunni minority into the political process.

The minister in charge of the Iraqi reconciliation plan, Akram al-Hakim, said on Wednesday that some insurgents had asked other Arab states to act as mediators.

Asked if Egypt would mediate, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said: ''No, but what we are trying to do is to develop a certain regional understanding that the violence has to stop.'' He said Egypt, which views itself as a heavyweight in Arab diplomacy, was helping train Iraqis in judicial and other areas to help them restore order and rebuild the country.

The two-day ministers meeting ended today as dozens of people were gunned down by rampaging militia gunmen in a Sunni Muslim district of Baghdad, the bloodiest of many outbreaks of sectarian violence that have raised fears of civil war.

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