US 'in talks with Iraq militants'

BBC

The US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, has said US officials have held talks with some groups linked to the Sunni-led Iraqi insurgency.
Mr Khalilzad told the BBC that, in his opinion, the talks had had an impact as the number of attacks on US troops by Iraqi militants had fallen.

But he stressed he would not negotiate with "Saddamists" and terrorists seeking a war on civilisation.

Mr Khalilzad also warned a civil war in Iraq remained a real risk.

Mr Khalilzad would not specify which groups the US had had contact with but "Saddamists" is usually a reference to al-Qaeda figures such as the Jordanian militant, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.

However, the ambassador said militia groups, which he described as the infrastructure of civil war, were just as much of a problem.