JORDAN AND IRAQ held talks Monday on anti-terrorism and security cooperation.

JORDAN AND IRAQ held talks Monday on anti-terrorism and security cooperation.

Iraqi National Security Adviser Muwaffaq Rubaie arrived yesterday in the Kingdom on a two-day visit to discuss “security cooperation, including efforts to fight terrorism and coordination between the two countries’ intelligence agencies”.

Iraqi Ambassador to Jordan Saad Hayani told AFP Iraq’s neighbours agreed last week at a Damascus meeting to help Baghdad build up its army, control the borders, fight organised crime and exchange information.

Government Spokesman Nasser Judeh told reporters that Rubaie was also expected to discuss “logistic issues” related to hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who fled to Jordan.

“Jordan does not prevent the Iraqis from entering the country, but the Kingdom has the right to protect its borders,” Judeh said at his weekly press conference yesterday.

According to the United Nations, about four million of Iraq’s 26 million people have fled the violence in Iraq, including those who left before the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

An estimated 1.4 million went to Syria and 750,000 to Jordan.

“There is no doubt that the Iraqis in Jordan burden the national economy,” Judeh said.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki called a crisis conference in a bid to open a dialogue among Iraq’s divided factions, to shore up his shaky government and unstick the stalled political process.

Maliki called for the meeting during a news conference Sunday and said he hoped it could take place in the next two days as he faces growing impatience with his government’s perceived Shiite bias and failure to achieve reconciliation or to stop the sectarian violence threatening to tear the country apart.

The prime minister also threatened to isolate the political blocs who have boycotted his Cabinet, suggesting they could be replaced by local Sunni tribal leaders who have recently formed alliances and joined US-led efforts against Al Qaeda in Iraq.

“We hope to end this crisis and that the ministers will return,” Maliki said.

“But if that doesn’t happen, we will go to our brothers who are offering their help and we will choose ministers from among them.”

A senior US official in Iraq, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the meeting would pave the way for Iraq’s leadership to make fundamental changes needed to jump-start political reconciliation issues.

“This isn’t a one-off kind of thing,” the official said.

“A lot of this is developing mechanisms which can be used, not instant solutions but understandings that the solutions are going to be needed over time. And making a commitment to a mechanism, a process and keeping at that process until Iraq is in a better place.”

He said US Ambassador Ryan Crocker would be available for consultations if needed but would not participate in the meetings, which he called an Iraqi initiative.

Iraq’s Sunnis expressed growing anger over their perceptions of Maliki as a deeply biased sectarian leader with links to Iran and his failure to bring all sides together after taking office in May 2006 and promising a national unity government.

“It is one year and four months now that he has been in office and he is still leading a one-man rule and a sectarian policy,” said Hamid Mutlaq, a senior member of the National Dialogue Front, a Sunni Arab political party.

“The country is on the verge of collapse… Is he going to give a cure after all this destruction? He has proved that he is a sectarian leader and a failure, the country is under the control of criminal gangs with the complete absence of an authority or government.”

His sharp words came a day after Iraq’s most senior Sunni politician, Adnan Duleimi, issued a desperate appeal for Arab nations to help stop what he called an “unprecedented genocide campaign” by Shiite militias armed, trained and controlled by Iran.

Duleimi said “Persians” and “Safawis”, Sunni terms for Iranian Shiites, were on the brink of total control in Baghdad and soon would threaten Sunni Arab regimes which predominate in the Mideast.

On the ground, A US soldier was killed Monday during fighting in Baghdad, the US military said

Earlier, the military pressed its crackdown on violence, announcing a new offensive against militiamen on both sides of the sectarian divide.

Operation Phantom Strike would build on the successes during recent offensives in Baghdad and surrounding areas, the military said.

The statement singled out Sunni insurgents linked to Al Qaeda in Iraq and said the Shiite extremists were being backed by Iran. The military statement did not give details but said US forces would increase pressure on Al Qaeda and its Sunni allies and rogue Shiite militiamen nationwide.