Iraq PM presents national reconciliation plan to parliament

"The plan is open to all those who want to enter the political process to build their country and save their people, as long as they did not commit crimes," Maliki told MPs.

"Reconciliation and national dialogue does not mean honouring and reaching out to the killers and criminals, no and a thousand nos -- there is no reconciliation with those until they are punished for their crimes."

Maliki said the initiative, first floated on June 6, will be open only to those rebels who have realised the "futility" of opposing the political process that has produced a new constitution and an elected government.

"We know that there is a segment that has followed the devil's road and were embraced by the forces of darkness and the 'mukhabarat' will continue to commit crimes," Maliki said, referring to the feared intelligence services of the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein.

"To those who want to build and reconcile, we extend our hand with an olive branch to build our nation. To those who insist on aggression, terror and killing, we will confront them with firmness to protect our people."

The 24-point plan aims to quell the raging Shiite-Sunni sectarian violence and also rein in the Sunni-backed insurgency that has killed thousands of people across the country.

On Saturday Kurdish Lawmaker Mahmud Othman had revealed details of the plan, saying it would "offer amnesty to everyone except war criminals and those who have killed innocent Iraqis".

"The plan aims to open dialogue with all insurgent groups except Al-Qaeda and Saddamists, and to disarm militias," Othman told Agence France-Presse.

He said the plan calls for a "timetable for the build-up of armed forces to control the security situation so that the role of coalition forces will come to an end".

A report in the New York Times today said that the top US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, foresees a major reduction in American forces there by the end of 2007, and the first cuts in September.

Othman said the reconciliation plan will offer compensation to the families of civilians killed by "coalition troops and those who have been wrongly detained", and will also focus on improving Iraqis' standard of living.

Maliki has already approved the release this month of about 2,500 prisoners held in US and Iraqi prisons, most of them Sunnis.

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