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Iraqi PM announces Cabinet reshuffle

Iraq's prime minister said he would reshuffle his Cabinet within two weeks and pursue criminal charges against political figures linked to extremists as a sign of his government's resolve to restore stability during the US-led security crackdown in Baghdad.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also told reporters during an interview on Saturday at his Green Zone office that Iraq will work hard to ensure the success of a regional security conference.

The conference in Baghdad, tentatively set for next weekend, is expected to bring together all of Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria, as well as the US and Britain to find ways to ease this country's security crisis.

Iran has not yet announced whether it will attend, but Iraqi officials believe that Tehran will send a representative.

Al-Maliki has been under pressure from the US to bring order into his factious government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds since it took office last May.

Rumors of Cabinet changes have surfaced before, only to disappear because of pressure from coalition members seeking to keep power.

Nevertheless, al-Maliki said there would be a Cabinet reshuffle "either this week or next."

After changes are announced, al-Maliki said he would undertake a "change in the ministerial structure," presumably consolidating and streamlining the 39-member Cabinet.

The prime minister did not say how many Cabinet members would be replaced.

But some officials said that about nine would lose their jobs, including all six Cabinet members loyal to radical anti-US Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, an al-Maliki ally.

Al-Sadr also controls 30 of the 275 parliament seats, and his support for al-Maliki has been responsible for the government's reluctance to crack down on the cleric's Mehdi Army militia, blamed for much of the Shiite-Sunni slaughter of the past year.

US officials had been urging al-Maliki to cut his ties to al-Sadr and form a new alliance of mainstream Shiites, moderate Sunnis and Kurds. Al-Maliki had been stalling, presumably at the urging of the powerful Shiite clerical hierarchy that wants to maintain Shiite unity.

But pressure for change has mounted since US President George W. Bush ordered 21,500 US troops to Iraq in January despite widespread opposition in Congress and among the US public.

Last month, US and Iraqi troops arrested Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili, an al-Sadr ally, for allegedly diverting millions of dollars in government funds to the Mehdi Army and allowing death squads to use ambulances and government hospitals to carry out kidnappings and killings.

During the interview, al-Maliki said that other top officials would face prosecution for ties to insurgents -- including members of parliament.

Al-Maliki did not elaborate on the US-Iraqi coordination but said Iraqi judicial authorities were reviewing case files to decide which to refer to an Iraqi investigative judge.

Al-Maliki said he was encouraged by the Iraqi public's response to the new Baghdad security operation -- which has led to a sharp drop in violence.

The prime minister did not say how many politicians and officials might be targeted for formal investigation, an Iraqi legal step that corresponds to a grand jury probe.

But five senior Iraqis -- two of them generals and three from Shiite and Sunni parties -- have said that up to 100 prominent figures could face legal proceedings.

The five spoke on condition of anonymity.

The US hopes the upcoming Baghdad conference will encourage Syria and other Arab countries -- most of them Sunni-led -- to increase their support for Iraqi's leadership.

"In fact the importance of the upcoming conference lies in the fact that the Iraqi government has the ability to serve as a proper venue for solving conflicts," al-Maliki said.

"So we will exert the utmost effort to find solutions to all pending questions, either among regional countries themselves or between them and Iraq, or between them and powers such as the US and Britain and the international community," he said.
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