UN Chief Flies Into Iraq for Talks
First visit by new secretary general Ban Ki-moon - Baghdad holding discussions with insurgents
The newly installed UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, arrived in Baghdad today for an unannounced visit.
He flew into the Iraqi capital for talks with the country's prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, inside Baghdad's fortified green zone, the Reuters news agency reported.
Mr Ban, formerly South Korea's foreign minister, took over from Kofi Annan in the UN top post in January. It is his first visit to Iraq.
For security reasons, planned visits by foreign dignitaries in Baghdad are not usually announced until their planes have touched down.
His visit came as a senior Iraqi official said the country's government is holding talks with Sunni insurgent groups in a bid to persuade them to lay down their arms.
Saad Yousif al-Muttalibi, of the Ministry of National Dialogue and Reconciliation, said the talks were initiated at the request of the insurgents and have been taking place inside and outside Iraq for the last three months.
He refused to identify the groups, but said they did not include al-Qaida in Iraq or Saddam Hussein loyalists. Members of the former president's Ba'ath party did, however, take part, he added.
Mr al-Muttalibi said negotiations were deadlocked over the insurgent groups' insistence that they would lay down their arms only when a timetable for the withdrawal of US-led coalition troops in Iraq is announced.
The government's response was that such a move could only be taken when security is restored.
Mr al-Muttalibi's comments came one day after he expressed optimism in an interview with the BBC that the Iraqi government was making progress in talks with insurgent groups, predicting some factions might be close to laying down their arms.
"One of the aims is to join with them in the fight against al-Qaida [in Iraq]," he told the BBC.
Reports have periodically surfaced in the past three years of talks between Iraqi and US authorities and representatives of Sunni insurgent groups, but details of the contents of these negotiations and whether they made any progress have always been sketchy.
Groups said to have taken part in such talks often denied their participation in statements posted on the internet.
He flew into the Iraqi capital for talks with the country's prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, inside Baghdad's fortified green zone, the Reuters news agency reported.
Mr Ban, formerly South Korea's foreign minister, took over from Kofi Annan in the UN top post in January. It is his first visit to Iraq.
For security reasons, planned visits by foreign dignitaries in Baghdad are not usually announced until their planes have touched down.
His visit came as a senior Iraqi official said the country's government is holding talks with Sunni insurgent groups in a bid to persuade them to lay down their arms.
Saad Yousif al-Muttalibi, of the Ministry of National Dialogue and Reconciliation, said the talks were initiated at the request of the insurgents and have been taking place inside and outside Iraq for the last three months.
He refused to identify the groups, but said they did not include al-Qaida in Iraq or Saddam Hussein loyalists. Members of the former president's Ba'ath party did, however, take part, he added.
Mr al-Muttalibi said negotiations were deadlocked over the insurgent groups' insistence that they would lay down their arms only when a timetable for the withdrawal of US-led coalition troops in Iraq is announced.
The government's response was that such a move could only be taken when security is restored.
Mr al-Muttalibi's comments came one day after he expressed optimism in an interview with the BBC that the Iraqi government was making progress in talks with insurgent groups, predicting some factions might be close to laying down their arms.
"One of the aims is to join with them in the fight against al-Qaida [in Iraq]," he told the BBC.
Reports have periodically surfaced in the past three years of talks between Iraqi and US authorities and representatives of Sunni insurgent groups, but details of the contents of these negotiations and whether they made any progress have always been sketchy.
Groups said to have taken part in such talks often denied their participation in statements posted on the internet.
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