Iraq Amnesty Plan May Cover Attacks On U.S. Military

The reconciliation effort pioneered by South Africa after the collapse of apartheid might be a model, Kadhimi said. "One way was to admit what you have done and you will be forgiven, and maybe parts of this can be considered. Because once we see people coming forward to admit what they have done, and it's within the areas the government has the right to pardon, it could happen."

Asked about clemency for those who attacked U.S. troops, he said: "That's an area where we can see a green line. There's some sort of preliminary understanding between us and the MNF-I," the U.S.-led Multi-National Force-Iraq, "that there is a patriotic feeling among the Iraqi youth and the belief that those attacks are legitimate acts of resistance and defending their homeland. These people will be pardoned definitely, I believe."

Asked about pardons for those who had attacked Iraqi forces, he said: "This needs to be carefully studied or designed so maybe the family of those individuals killed have a right to make a claim at the court, because that is a public right. Or maybe the government can compensate them."

U.S. diplomatic officials have said previously that they were encouraging dialogue among Iraq's many rival factions, but none has confirmed U.S. backing for an amnesty offer.

Maliki also addressed the problem of militias allied with his Shiite religious bloc. "Our success in the national reconciliation plan and our success in providing services will give . . . a message that there is no need anymore for militias, because security is under the government's control." He had earlier proposed that militias be absorbed into Iraq's security forces.

Maliki's statements come as there is growing openness to dialogue on all sides of Iraq's ethnic and religious divides. Talabani told reporters at a news conference in the Kurdish north last weekend that he believed 2006 might be the year of peace settlements for Iraq.

Similarly, the top Sunni Arab in Iraq's new government said this week that he believed a peace deal was "very close." Salam al-Zobaie, the deputy prime minister, said in an interview in his Baghdad office this week that the difference this time was that the new Shiite-led government was indicating openness to compromise.

Asked about proposals of amnesty for Sunni insurgents, Zobaie said the previous Shiite governments "closed the door" on the Sunnis "and forced them to take up the gun to defend themselves. We should be talking about an apology, not amnesty."

Bahaa al-Araji, a lawmaker and supporter of Shiite cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr, said Wednesday that members of the governing Shiite alliance were formally asked by their bloc this week to evaluate who might be acceptable partners for dialogue on the Sunni side.

Speaking before Maliki's news conference, Araji rejected some of what he said were too-easy peace terms being floated by Talabani. He said Talabani was speaking from the perspective of a northern Kurd spared the scale of violence that has bloodied the rest of Iraq.

Rather than a reconciliation conference, Araji said, the best step for peace in Iraq would be for leaders of Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish blocs in parliament to come to terms among themselves.

"That will take care of 90 percent of the people" in Iraq's conflict. The remaining 10 percent "will then be isolated and exposed, so all their evil steps are obvious to us and to them," Araji said. Military forces could deal with the remaining hard-liners after any reconciliation, he said.

Asked if he was optimistic about prospects for an easing of the killings, Araji cited the Feb. 22 bombing of the golden-domed Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad. Destruction of the shrine spurred sectarian violence to new and lasting heights.

"Not as optimistic as I was six months ago," the Shiite lawmaker said. "More than I was three months ago."

Staff writer Joshua Partlow and special correspondents Omar Fekeiki and Saad al-Izzi contributed to this report.