Iraqi leaders urge unity

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BAGHDAD -- Iraq's top political leaders aimed yesterday to defuse a gathering crisis over contested general election results, while the country's top Shi'ite cleric called for setting up a national unity government.

President Jalal Talabani met with representatives from the two main political coalitions disputing the results of the Dec. 15 elections, the Sunni Accordance Front and former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National List, as well as his own Kurdish Alliance.

"There is a crisis ... and it is necessary to recognize there are problems, rather than hide them," Mahdi al-Hafez of the Allawi list told reporters after the meeting.

According to preliminary election results, the religious Shi'ite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which dominated the outgoing parliament, will also control the next parliament. Final results are not expected before January.

The alliance won overwhelming majorities in the country's southern provinces, as well as the key province of Baghdad, while Mr. Allawi's secular Shi'ite list performed poorly.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, the spiritual leader for many among the nation's Shi'ite majority, appealed for calm and urged the setting up of a government of national unity, national security adviser Mowaffak Rubaie said after meeting with him.

The ayatollah said Shi'ite-based religious parties should "work with other components of the Iraqi people to set up a government of national unity representative of all the country's main [political] families," Mr. Rubaie said.

Two dozen parties, including the main Sunni Arab coalition, Thursday called for a rerun of the general elections because of purported fraud.

Elements from the Sunni Arab minority, dominant under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, are seen as the backbone behind the insurgency.

Electoral commission official Adel al-Lami said the commission was investigating some 1,500 complaints, but he appeared to rule out any large-scale new balloting.