Iraqi leaders met in a show of sectarian and ethnic solidarity today before a White House visit by the prime minister, but some were pessimistic about the chances of tackling rising sectarian bloodshed.
The biggest party from the Sunni Arab community, which forms the backbone of a raging insurgency against a Shia-led, US-backed government, did not join the talks.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will visit Washington to meet US President George W. Bush on Tuesday and they are expected to discuss ways of improving security in Baghdad, which is gripped by sectarian violence fuelling fears of civil war.
Maliki, a tough-talking Islamist, strongly urged Iraqis to embrace peaceful politics during a break from the talks in Baghdad's heavily fortified government headquarters.
"Those who oppose the political process want to return to dictatorship," he told a news conference, standing beside the president, a Kurd, and the Sunni speaker of parliament.
So far, Maliki's 24-point reconciliation plan, long on promises but short on details, has failed to stem the rising violence, which kills between 30 and 50 people in Baghdad alone every day.
A senior US official said in Washington yesterday that one option for improving security is to bring more US and Iraqi forces into the capital.
The largest Sunni political bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, did not show up for today's meeting, and one Sunni parliamentarian said this was for "administrative" reasons.
He also said Sunni leaders have little hope that the talks will help ease divisions. "There have been previous meetings and they have led to nothing," said the parliamentarian, who asked not to be named.
Iraq leaders have admitted they despair of being able to avert all-out civil war.
"Iraq as a political project is finished," a top government official said yesterday -- anonymously because the coalition led by Maliki remains committed in public to a US- sponsored constitution preserving Iraq's unity.
Iraqi and US officials now believe sectarian militias are killing more Iraqis and pose a greater security threat than the insurgency -- though this is still a major destabilising force.