IRAQ - Dec 13 - Sunni Politician Says Iraq Poll Could Prompt Talks With US.

A leading Sunni Arab politician predicts Dec 15 parliamentary elections will pave the way for negotiations between the US and Sunni leaders on reducing the violence. Saleh Al Mutlek, a prominent candidate on the list of the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, one of two new Sunni-led coalitions contesting the elections to the first permanent postwar parliament, said such talks could get US troops out of Iraq cities and isolate radicals responsible for attacks on civilians. "I think we will be able to talk to the Americans in a democratic way through parliament to convince them that they should withdraw from the cities", he said. Such agreements, he said, could "cut the oxygen" from radicals such as Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. Although some other guerilla groups reportedly oppose Zarqawi's strategy of attacking civilians, Mutlek says for the time being they still regard him as an ally in their fight against the US military. Iraqi government officials have predicted that a strong Sunni contingent in parliament could participate in negotiating local ceasefire deals and other confidence-building measures between guerilla leaders. In January's elections, a boycott called by the Sunni religious leadership as well as insurgent threats against voters led to low turnout and a parliament of which only 6% of the members were Sunni. During the summer and autumn, politicians and religious leaders rallied to oppose a federal constitution that they said would divide and weaken the nation. Mutlek says politicians such as himself won the trust of many insurgent groups through their opposition to the constitution, and now the guerillas "want to give a chance to politicians, to try their best". Since the election, two new Sunni-led political alliances have emerged - the Iraqi Consensus Front, an Islamist-leaning coalition that claims it will amend the constitution, and Mutlek's more secular Iraq National Dialogue Front. Other prominent Sunni candidates are running on the Iraqi National List of former PM Iyad Allawi. Dec 13, Sunni areas are draped with banners for the two main coalitions, as well as for tribal shaikhs and other local leaders running as independents. The Sunnis' most influential religious organisation, the Association of Muslim Scholars, continues to oppose elections under foreign occupation as illegitimate, but issued a comparatively mild statement that affirms the right of Iraqis to make their own choices. One prominent association member, Abd al-Ghaffour al-Samarrai, has joined about 1000 Sunni theologians in issuing a fatwa urging a vote. Among the insurgents, the Islamic Army in Iraq, which has claimed responsibility for a number of operations and which is thought to include former military and intelligence officers, has urged its fighters not to attack polling stations. More radical groups however continue to threaten voters, with an internet statement in the name of Al Qaeda denouncing the elections as a "satanic project" and proclaiming that the fight would continue to install an Islamic state. Campaign workers have been targeted, while Sunni parliamentary candidate Mizhar Al Dulaimi was gunned down as he filled his car with petrol in Ramadi, western Iraq.