Sunni clerics want troops withdrawal timetable

The Committee of Muslim Scholars' spokesman, Omar Ragheb, was speaking to the press after its chairman Hareth al-Dari met US Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy in Iraq, Ashraf Qazi.

"Qazi asked the Committee to take part in drafting the constitution. We told him that we had conditions and that we would discuss them with the parties that boycotted the polls and would put forward a common stance," he said.

"These demands focus on reaching a consensus with all political parties on a withdrawal of foreign forces," Ragheb said.

The spokesman of the organisation, which is also known as the Ulema Committee and was one of the leading forces that opposed last Sunday's general elections, hinted that the influential grouping of clerics could then weigh on the insurgency to end the bloodshed which has marred Iraq's reconstruction.

"Then, the country's elders will tell the resistance: 'No need to spill more blood'," Ragheb said.

Meanwhile, the United Iraqi Alliance, endorsed by Iraq's top Shia clerics, captured more than two-thirds of the 3.3 million votes counted so far, the election commission said. The ticket headed by Allawi, a secular Shia, had about 18 percent or more than 579,700 votes.

Those latest partial figures from Sunday's contest for 275 National Assembly seats came from 10 of Iraq's 18 provinces, said Hamdiyah al-Husseini, an election commission official. All 10 provinces have heavy Shia populations, and the Alliance had been expected to do well there. So far, 45 percent of the vote has been counted in Baghdad, with varying percentages tallied in the other nine provinces.