UN envoy urges Iraq to stop slide to civil war

BAGHDAD, Nov 25 (Reuters) The U N envoy to Iraq warned today that the ''carnage'' and ''blind acts of revenge'' of the past few days were tearing Iraq apart and urged the government to resolve its differences and stop the slide into civil war.

Ashraf Qazi, U N Secretary General Kofi Annan's special representative for Iraq, also urged Iraq's neighbours to help.

Qazi said car bombs on Thursday that killed more than 200 people in a Shi'ite area, and revenge attacks on Sunni Arabs, were part of a vicious cycle of sectarian violence ''tearing apart the very political and social fabric of Iraq''.

''No country could tolerate such a cancer in its body politic,'' Qazi said in a statement, calling on politicians and the people to show sincere determination to save Iraq.

''This could only be done through a genuine national dialogue aimed at resolving key political issues and developing a national consensus in support of policies and measures to prevent extremists from destroying Iraq,'' the statement said.

''Otherwise, Iraq would continue to descend into a civil war situation and people would become the victims of an unprecedented human rights catastrophe.'' REVENGE Sectarian bitterness has surfaced within the six-month-old Shi'ite-led government after attacks on politicians. The government has imposed a curfew on Baghdad since Thursday and called for calm, hoping to avert a spiral of revenge attacks.

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