US vice president Joe Biden told Iraqi officials today Washington backed a ban on Saddam Hussein's Baath party and said he had faith Iraq would resolve a row over the banning of election candidates suspected of links to it.
The move by an independent panel has outraged Sunnis who dominated Iraq for more than two decades under Saddam and who see it as an attempt to marginalise their community, casting doubt on the inclusiveness and legitimacy of a March 7th vote.
US officials say the arbitrary way the list appears to have been drawn up and the questionable legitimacy of the panel could undermine the election.
But Mr Biden, on his third visit to Iraq since US troops pulled out of city centres in June, said Washington had no problem with holding Baath party loyalists accountable.
"I want to make clear I am not here to resolve that issue (of the banned candidates). This is for Iraqis, not for me. I am confident that Iraq's leaders are seized with this issue and are working for a final, just solution," Mr Biden said.
"The United States condemns the crimes of the previous regime and we fully support Iraq's constitutional ban on the return to power of Saddam's Baath party."
The sectarian violence between minority Sunnis and majority Shias unleashed by the 2003 US invasion has begun to fade. But Iraq's security remains fragile, and is frequently put to the test by suicide bombings and killings carried out by suspected Sunni Islamist insurgents such as al-Qaeda, or attacks US officials blame on Shia militia supported by Iran.
The March election is a test of whether Iraq can sustain the growing peace and build a future of stability and prosperity on the back of multibillion-dollar contracts the country has started to sign with global oil companies.
Iraqi officials campaigning for the election on a platform of having cut violence and having restored Iraqi sovereignty by getting the United States to agree to withdraw by end-2011, made it clear they did not need nor seek US interference.
"The issue of accountability and justice is an Iraqi issue and there is no foreign role in it, nor is there a role for foreign influence," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said after Mr Biden met Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Sunnis largely boycotted the last national elections in 2005, feeding resentment and fuelling the insurgency against US troops and the Shia-led government. That could happen again if Sunnis feel unfairly excluded from this election.
The 511 banned candidates can appeal to a panel and Iraqi leaders are due to hold a meeting to find a resolution.
The list of banned candidates actually included more Shia politicians than Sunnis. It was weighted against secular groups expected to fare well in the election against the Shia Islamist parties that have dominated Iraq since the invasion.
More of the 6,500 candidates in total standing in the election are expected to be banned for other reasons, such as for having criminal records or using fake university degrees.
One of the officials Mr Biden met was Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, who is presiding over deals with oil firms that could catapult Iraq to third place from 11th among oil producing nations and make its crude output rival Saudi Arabia's.
"I just want to say in light of your newfound prosperity, I'm available for adoption," Mr Biden joked during a photo call.
Mr Biden was asked by President Barack Obama to take the White House lead on Iraq policy.
Reuters