Iraq confident parliament to pass U.S. security pact

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi officials are confident parliament will pass a security pact paving the way for U.S. troops to leave by end-2011 but want a big consensus including minority Sunnis, a government spokesman said on Monday.

A simple majority of 138 votes in the 275 seat parliament is required on Wednesday to pass the deal, which 136 lawmakers of the ruling Shi'ite and Kurdish blocs are already likely to support.

But government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters: "It is not the plan to pass it in this way, without the majority of the Sunnis ... so the effort is to convince Al-Tawafuq to pass it."

Al-Tawafuq is the Iraqi Accordance Front, the biggest Sunni bloc, with 38 seats in parliament. Bringing it on board would help create the wide consensus which Iraq's leading Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has said is needed.

Sistani, whose approval is crucial because of his status and influence in the majority Shi'ite comunity, has said it is up to parliament to decide on the pact, but it should have the support of all Iraq's communities.

The deal with the United States replaces a U.N. mandate governing the U.S. military presence in Iraq. If it failed in parliament, an extension of the mandate could be needed. "We are confident that it is likely to pass, so we have not spent time looking at that alternative yet," Dabbagh said.

Under the terms of the deal, U.S. troops will withdraw from towns and cities by the middle of 2009, and from Iraq as a whole by the end of 2011. The law also curbs U.S. powers to detain Iraqi citizens and conduct military operations.

Sunnis accept the pact, but must be convinced they will be respected once the Americans leave, Dabbagh said. Iraq has a Shi'ite leadership and has good ties with neighbouring Iran, a Shi'ite country.

Minority Sunnis were dominant under the late dictator Saddam Hussein and initially associated with the al Qaeda-inspired insurgency that erupted after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. A decision by Sunni tribal chiefs to turn on al Qaeda helped end the sectarian violence that threatened a year ago to tear Iraq apart.

There are still questions about the future of the large number of Sunnis among the roughly 17,000 Iraqi detainees in U.S. custody.

"There are assurances for Al-Tawafuq that nobody is going to exclude them from any future issues," Dabbagh said.

Iraq's leaders met with politicians on Sunday to persuade them to vote for the deal, and the country's defense and finance ministers have in recent days warned of dire consequences if it is rejected, including a threat to oil exports.

(Additional reporting by Peter Graff and Michael Christie; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)