Five Iraqi leaders reached a reconciliation deal late on Sunday after several weeks of discussions involving the four-party alliance of Shia and Kurdish parties and the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni faction.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, Sunni Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi, Shia Vice-President Adel Abdel Mahdi, and Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish region had agreed to adopt legislation the US considers essential for achieving national reconciliation. They pledged to end the ban on former Baath party members taking up jobs in the civil service and military, hold provincial elections, and release detainees held without charge, 85 per cent of whom are Sunnis.  However, the draft oil law and the constitutional amendments demanded by Sunnis and secularists require further work before there is a consensus.
While Hashemi took part in the discussions, he has not agreed that the Islamic Party, which he heads, will join the recently formed alliance comprising the Shia fundamentalist Dawa party of Maliki and the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council and the two Kurdish parties. 
Although the largest constituent in the Front, the Islamic Party cannot speak for the rest of its members. If the party had joined the Shia-Kurd alliance, this grouping would have a narrow majority in parliament and could claim to represent the country's main communities. At present the Shia-Kurd alliance can count on 110 deputies and speaks only for Shia fundamentalists and Kurds loyal to Talabani and Barzani.
While the beleaguered Maliki received a boost from the agreement with the Sunnis, it is unlikely to compensate for Saturday's defection of the Iraqi National List, with 25 seats in the assembly and five ministers in the cabinet, leaving it with 20 of its original 37 ministers.
The List's head, Ayad Allawi, who served as interim premier, has hired an influential Washington public relations firm to lobby for the ouster of Maliki and abolition of the current ethno-sectarian system of governance. Allawi, a secular Shia who enjoys Sunni backing, is one of the leading contenders for the premiership.
Contradicting US claims that violence is down in Iraq due to the US military “surge” launched in mid-February, war-related deaths have doubled in the past year, with the average daily toll rising from 33 in 2006 to 62 this year.
Nearly 1,000 more people died violently in Iraq in the first eight months of 2007 than during the whole of 2006.  UN and other sources say fatalities are much higher. The Iraqi Red Crescent reports the number of internally displaced has more than doubled from 477,337  to 1.14 million. The number of Iraqi prisoners in US custody has risen from 16,000 in February to 24,500 today.