Iraqi leaders from across the political and ethnic spectrum were to discuss reconciliation in their strife-torn country during Arab League-sponsored meetings in Cairo.

The three-day talks are only meant to prepare for a larger conference to take place in Iraq but officials are hoping they will provide an opportunity to start ironing out differences between the country's feuding communities.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said the meeting was "part of steps aimed at promoting the political process in Iraq" and called on all sides to demonstrate "goodwill towards achieving positive results."

The meetings are to gather representatives of the disenchanted Sunni former elite, as well as the Shiite and the non-Arab Kurds.

Sunni leaders, for their part, charge that Kurdish and Shiite leaders are seeking to marginalise their community and are bitter over a constitution that many Sunnis charge could hasten the break-up of Iraq.

Joining the meeting alongside the Shiite prime minister will be Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, Vice President Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni, the head of the main Sunni clerics' association, Hareth al-Dari, and the head of the largest Sunni political faction, the Islamic Party, Tareq al-Hashemi.

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, will be taking part in the opening session.

Arab League sources have said former Baathists will be attending as members of some delegations, something that may irk top Shiites who have insisted that they were not ready to talk to Sunnis opposed to their new regime.

There are notable absentees such as Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the main Shiite party SCIRI, and radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, but both are sending delegations in their places.

Alongside the Iraqi leaders, Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika are to attend the meeting.

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