Iraqi premier invites Hussein forces into peace effort

BAGHDAD -- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called on former members of Saddam Hussein's disbanded army to join Iraq's new security forces in an effort to restore peace to the war-racked country.

Maliki made his remarks at the beginning of a two-day national reconciliation conference that was intended to unite ethnic, reli gious, and political groups behind a strategy for ending the sectarian warfare that kills scores of civilians each day.

His decision to welcome back members of the former Sunni-dominated army is a key concession.

In another conciliatory move, Maliki, who is a Shi'ite Muslim, urged political leaders to review the law that had banned loyalists of Hussein's Ba'ath Party from working in government, and to ensure protections for the Ba'ath members' families.

The former US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, dissolved the Iraqi army after US-led forces toppled Hussein's government.

This left a pool of Sunnis to swell the ranks of the insurgency against a new Iraqi government that, they said, excluded them.

"The new Iraqi army has opened its doors to the members of the former army, whether officers or enlisted men," Maliki said.