Secularists pull ministers out of Iraq government

BAGHDAD, Aug 24 (Reuters) Three secularist ministers who were already boycotting meetings of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's cabinet will formally quit the government, their bloc said today.

The move by the secularist group of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi deals a further blow to Maliki's efforts to rebuild a national unity coalition, which has been crumbling since the main Sunni Arab group and others walked out.

''The Iraqi List has decided to withdraw from the government and we will send a memo to the government to inform them of our stance at the beginning of next week,'' a senior member of the bloc, Iyad Jamal al-Deen, told Reuters.

The bloc has five ministers in the government, three of whom were now quitting, while a fourth, the justice minister, had already resigned, he said. The fifth, a member of the Communist Party, was not participating in the walkout.

Jamal al-Deen said the bloc, which began boycotting cabinet meetings on August 7, opposed the handing out of government jobs on sectarian lines and was now pulling out because Maliki had not responded to its call to end the practice.

Declassified findings of a US intelligence estimate yesterday gave a gloomy prognosis for Maliki's efforts at reconciliation.

''Levels of insurgent and sectarian violence will remain high and the Iraqi government will continue to struggle to achieve national-level political reconciliation and improved governance,'' the findings said.

REUTERS PD KP1518