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Biden to mediate in Iraq poll row Biden seeks to ease Iraq poll row
(about 5 hours later)
US Vice-President Joe Biden is visiting Iraq in an attempt to mediate in a political crisis over candidates for the crucial general elections in March. US Vice-President Joe Biden is holding talks in Iraq to try to defuse a political crisis over candidates for the general elections in March.
More than 500 have been banned so far, on suspicion of loyalty to Saddam Hussein's dissolved Baath Party. More than 500 have been banned so far, many on suspicion of loyalty to Saddam Hussein's dissolved Baath Party.
The dispute has caused bitter recriminations among Iraqi politicians.The dispute has caused bitter recriminations among Iraqi politicians.
The Americans are eager that the March elections should be as smooth as possible, as they will start pulling out all their combat forces soon after. Many Sunnis are outraged, saying their community is being marginalised, while many Shias oppose both rehabilitating Baathists and US interference.
So they see the row over disqualifications as a threat to the national reconciliation they are desperate to foster. Deeply sensitive
The majority Shias in particular are deeply opposed to rehabilitating former Baathists, while among many Sunnis there are certainly lingering loyalties and sympathies. Mr Biden began his talks by meeting the UN secretary general's special representative for Iraq, Ad Melkert, for a working breakfast.
One of their leading politicians, Saleh al-Mutlak, is on the list of 511 would-be candidates who have been banned from running, although he is already an MP and head of a parliamentary bloc. The vice-president was then to meet Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, President Jalal Talabani and other key political figures.
Mr Biden is believed to be proposing that the cases for disqualification should be re-examined after the elections, and that candidates should be asked to denounce the Baath party. A protester with a ripped poll poster for banned candidate Dhafir al-Ani
That could provide common ground for a compromise, but some of the Shia factions, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, have made it clear that they resent outside interference. The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says both the US and UN are increasingly worried that the March elections could become discredited.
The issue is deeply divisive. Mr Maliki, who belongs to the Shia community, has generally been supportive of the disqualifications.
President Jalal Talabani, who is a Kurd, has questioned the legality of the commission which issued the disqualifications, referring it to the supreme court for a ruling. However, Mr Talabani, who is a Kurd, has questioned the legality of the commission which issued the disqualifications, referring it to the supreme court for a ruling.
Our correspondent says Mr Biden will have to tread carefully as, particularly in Shia circles, political interference and pressure from the Americans is a deeply sensitive issue.
He says Mr Biden may not achieve an immediately visible success but the Americans will be eager for the elections to foster national reconciliation so the withdrawal of troops can be achieved against a stable background.
Tony Blinken, Mr Biden's national security adviser, said the vice-president would not be heavy handed.
"I don't think it's the place of the United States or any other outside country to resolve these kinds of problems for Iraqis.
"We want to be as helpful as the Iraqis want us to be in helping them resolve these problems. Because, ultimately, [those problems] are what stands between Iraq and a successful, stable future."
Mr Blinken said the timetable for withdrawing all US combat troops by August, with a full military pullout in 2011, remained on track.
The election blacklist targets former members of the Baath party, the Fedayeen militia and Mukhabarat intelligence agency.
Ahead of the vice-president's visit, Mr Talabani suggested Mr Biden had proposed "that the disqualifications be deferred until after the election and that those candidates who have been barred condemn and disavow the Baath party and undertake to act through democratic means".
Although violence has lessened in Iraq over the past two years, security remains fragile.
Both Iraq and its Western backers see the March election as a crucial test of whether peace can be made sustainable.