By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA

CAIRO, Egypt, 23 April 2007 (Associated Press)

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki got a strong endorsement from the Egyptian leadership as he began a tour to drum up support from fellow Arab nations for his government and its efforts to reduce widespread sectarian violence.

Al-Maliki — making his first visit as prime minister to Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous nation — met with President Hosni Mubarak for about 45 minutes Sunday and later held talks with his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Nazif.

During the visit, al-Maliki said he had ordered a halt to the U.S. military construction of a barrier separating a Sunni enclave from surrounding Shiite areas in Baghdad after fierce criticism over the project at home.

The U.S. military announced last week that it was building the three-mile-long and 12-foot-tall concrete wall. U.S. and Iraqi officials have defended plans for the barrier as an effort to halt some sectarian violence. Residents and Sunni leaders complained it was a form of discrimination that would isolate the community.

“I oppose the building of the wall and its construction will stop,” al-Maliki said during a news conference. “There are other methods to protect neighborhoods, but I should point out that the goal was not to separate, but to protect.”

Al-Maliki’s visit came 10 days before two conferences on Iraq will be held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik. They will be attended by Iraq’s neighbors as well as Bahrain and Egypt, and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain — and other members of the Group of Eight industrialized nations.

Al-Maliki won’t attend those meetings but is lobbying for more help from the mostly Sunni-led governments of the Arab world in stopping violence in Iraq.

“It was a positive and comprehensive meeting and we discussed the problems in Iraq. I clarified to the president the reality of what is going in Iraq, which is not a civil or sectarian war,” al-Maliki said during a joint news conference with Nazif. “We found that Egypt is ready to be a partner in Iraq’s reconstruction and that Egyptian companies have a role that we are ready to support.”

The prime minister blamed al-Qaida in Iraq for the violence that continues to plague Iraq, despite a U.S.-led security crackdown that began on Feb. 14 in Baghdad.

Nazif said they discussed the situation in Iraq and international efforts to help the embattled Arab nation.

“Egypt stands by Iraq and we affirm our support to the Iraqi government’s efforts for reconciliation between all parts of the Iraqi society and we condemn terrorism that does not differentiate between anyone,” Nazif added.

Al-Maliki planned to travel next to Kuwait and aides said the United Arab Emirates and Oman might be added to his agenda.

The Iraqi leader also said “there are efforts to release” five Iranians who were captured by U.S. forces on Jan. 11 in the northern city of Irbil in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, 220 miles north of Baghdad.

U.S. authorities said the five detained Iranians included the operations chief and other members of        Iran’s elite Quds Force, which is accused of arming and training Iraqi militants.

The Iraqi prime minister’s visit came 10 days before two conferences on Iraq will be held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik. They will be attended by Iraq’s neighbors as well as Bahrain and Egypt, and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain. Al-Maliki won’t attend those meetings.

On Tuesday, he said his Iraqi government is holding talks with some insurgent groups, including members of Saddam Hussein’s former regime, as part of a reconciliation plan aimed at reducing fighting and terrorist attacks that have left thousands of people dead in Iraq in the past few years .

Al-Maliki did not identify the groups his government is in contact with, but said that when the Sharm el-Sheik conference takes place on May 3-4, “we will have good chances for reconciliation.”

In June, al-Maliki announced a 24-point national reconciliation program that offers amnesty to members of the Sunni-led insurgency who were not involved in “terrorist activities,” and amends a law that had removed senior members of Saddam’s Baath Party from their jobs.

Earlier this month, the prime minister visited Japan and South Korea, members of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

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