Suspicions Remain After Iraq Conference

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, left and Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Abu el-gheit talk during a joint press conference with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, unseen following the first day sessions of the conference of International Compact with Iraq at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt Thursday, May 3, 2007. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called on all countries Thursday to forgive his country's foreign debts on the opening day of the Iraq conference. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) (Nasser Nasser - AP)

Ahead of the conference, Saudi King Abdullah also refused to meet al-Maliki during a regional tour by the Iraqi leader, underlining Saudi displeasure with the Iraqi government's closeness to Iran.

On Thursday, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal stopped short of announcing the forgiveness of Iraq's debt as U.S. and Iraqi officials had hoped. Instead, he told the conference Saudi Arabia was still negotiating with Iraq.

The kingdom, one of Iraq's biggest creditors, is owed between $15 billion and $18 billion. Iraq says its huge Saddam-era debt to various countries _ amounting by some estimates to over $60 billion _ is too big a burden when it is trying to rebuild. But other top creditors _ including Kuwait, Russia and China _ also did not announce immediate debt relief.

In his speech to the conference Friday, al-Faisal called on Iraqis "to rise to the level of their historic and moral responsibility" and enact the political reforms.

Al-Maliki sought to convince his neighbors his government was serious about reform, saying reconciliation "is not some passing political slogan for us, it's a strategic vision."

But he added a warning not to side with Iraq's Sunnis. "We ask our brothers and friends to respect the religious, sectarian and ethnical diversity of the Iraqi people," he said. "We will not allow any component of the Iraqi people to turn to foreign powers against another component."

But al-Maliki faces strong obstacles at home to the reforms. His Shiite allies in parliament have resisted a draft law for ending the program to purge Baathists; they also oppose changing the constitution to accommodate Sunnis.

Friday's declaration also calls on Iraq to disarm Shiite militias _ a provision that brought a rebuke Friday from the movement of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a former ally of al-Maliki who leads one of the most feared militias.

"If the government disarms the people, how can the people defend themselves from extremists and Saddamists?" Sheik Abdul Hadi Al-Mohamadawi, a top Sadrist, said Friday in a sermon in the Iraqi city of Kufa.