Iraq News

NYT

In an attempt to defuse a political confrontation with this country's embittered Sunni Arabs, the Shiite-led constitutional committee of the Iraqi Parliament met for several hours on Sunday and decided to give Sunni Arabs 15 seats with full membership on the 55-member committee and 10 adviser positions. The Sunnis have insisted on at least 25 seats.

Sunni Arabs, about a fifth of Iraq's population, are thinly represented in Parliament because many refused to vote in national elections in January. American officials have been pressing Shiite and Kurdish leaders to give Sunni Arabs a greater role in politics.


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Meanwhile, an outspoken supporter of the war, Representative Walter B. Jones, Republican of North Carolina, said in an interview Sunday on the ABC News program "This Week" that he had changed his position, and he called for a fixed timetable for withdrawal of troops here.

The remarks came two weeks after military commanders told a Congressional delegation visiting Iraq that it would take about two years before enough Iraqi security forces were sufficiently trained to allow the Pentagon to withdraw large numbers of American troops