Allawi says Iraq nearing "point of no return"

WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) Iraq's former prime minister, Iyad Allawi, has said the country was quickly approaching a ''point of no return'' and praised the recommendation of a bipartisan US panel for a diplomatic push to stem the violence.

In an interview on MSNBC, Allawi said Iraq was ''approaching now, unfortunately, very fast the point of no return.'' Under current Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Allawi said conditions were ''moving into more of a sectarian divide. They are moving into (a) more lawless state of affairs. And they are moving into a disintegration, unfortunately, of the country.'' Allawi, who was popular with the administration of US President George W Bush but gained only a few seats in an election a year ago, generally praised the findings of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan US commission, calling for major changes in US policies in Iraq.

''I think the report as whole has a very positive aspect to it,'' said Allawi, who said Iraqi President Jalal Talabani should have considered the report more carefully before condemning it as dangerous and insulting to Iraq.

Unlike Talabani, Allawi agreed with the commission's recommendation that US troops focus on training Iraqi forces.

''We should definitely embark on the help of the United States, of NATO, of our regional neighbors, to help build institutions, including our military institutions,'' Allawi said.

He said the report's key recommendation was for regional and international efforts to stabilize Iraq, saying, ''I think what we are looking now really is at a political settlement of issues and problems in Iraq rather than military settlement.'' The former prime minister, who gave the government emergency powers more than two years ago when he was in office, said Iraq should impose martial law as part of an overall strategy to confront the violence.

''We have a government which is almost at a standstill. The services are almost at a standstill. We have a region which is boiling really throughout, and it's slipping into more chaos,'' Allawi said.

REUTERS DKS PM0438