WASHINGTON- Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said he had held private meetings with representatives of insurgent groups from the restive cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra to persuade them to accept an amnesty offer, The Washington Post reported on its Web site.
The newspaper quoted Allawi as saying the meetings, which began shortly after he assumed power in late June, have been intended to wean lower-ranking members away from harder-core insurgent elements and thus drive a wedge between factions in the movement.
He said he has not reached agreement with any of the groups, but insisted that some of the representatives are "changing horses ... and taking the amnesty seriously," the report said.
The meetings, some of which have occurred at Allawi's private home, represent the most significant effort yet to address the insurgency through political rather than military means, The Post said.
"I am meeting with them," Allawi said in an interview with a half-dozen foreign newspaper correspondents. "Fallujah. Ramadi. I am talking to the people there and we are reaching out to them, to tribes, to guys who were in military and security."
"'There is an amnesty,' I'm telling them. 'Make use of it,'" the paper quoted the prime minister as saying.
The contacts indicate that Allawi appears to have concluded that forging peace deals with enemies may be better for him -- and his country -- than military operations, according to The Post.