DAR AL ISLAM - IRAQ: TALKS WITH SUNNI JIHADISTS IN IRAQ

US general asks Sunni fighters to start talks
By Damien McElroy in Baghdad

The senior US general in Iraq yesterday urged Sunni Muslim insurgents to agree a political settlement that would end the conflict.

General David Petraeus used his first public statement since arriving in Baghdad last month to make a plea to the extremists behind attacks on America's troop 'surge' which is intended to pacify the capital.

"There is no military solution to a problem like that in Iraq," he said. "Military action is necessary to improve security but it is not sufficient. It is crucial that in the long run we are talking to some of those who felt that the new Iraq did not have a place for them."

The mild-mannered paratrooper hunched his shoulders over a podium as he laid out a dual approach for tackling the violence.

The US military commitment to Iraq is to rise gradually each month until June when the last brigade of additional combat troops deploys. Thereafter commanders will seek to build confidence in security by sustaining and building its forces. Six weeks after Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched the US-backed Baghdad security plan, the level of sectarian violence has fallen as Shia Muslim militias have ceased attacks.

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1) US general asks Sunni fighters to start talks