Shiite- Kurdish agreement to involve Sunnis in coalition

Leaders of the Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish blocs agreed to proceed forward in the efforts to get the Sunni parties involved in a plenary coalition government.

This came in conclusion of a visit carried out by the chairman of the United Iraqi Coalition list, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, to Irbil, where he had held a series of meetings to discuss means of alleviating tension from the results of the Iraqi legislative elections which the Sunni and the Shiite secular parties say were falsified in the interests of the preserved Shiite list.

It is due that Hakim will be meeting today with the Iraqi interim President Jalal al-Talibani marking the beginning of a series of bilateral meetings including leaders of the Arab Sunni and the seculars who demand the repetition of the elections. The minister of planning Barham Saleh said that Talibani will be meeting after Hakim with the former prime minister Eyad Allawi and the Sunni leaders Adnan al-Duleimi and Tareq al-Hashimi from al-Tawafuq Front.

The preliminary results of the elections indicate that some 130 seats will be dedicated to the Shiite coalition in the national assembly ( parliament) which includes 275 seats, the Kurds will get 52 seats and the Sunni al-Tawafuq front at 41 and Allawi list 24 seats. The Sunni Secular National Dialogue Front might get 9 seats.