Iraqi Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi called Wednesday for talks with the country's armed groups.
Hashemi, a Sunni, said in an interview with the BBC that "I do believe there is no way but to talk to everybody."
All parties "should be invited, should be called to sit down around the table to discuss their fears, their reservations," he said, while adding that Al-Qaeda was "not very much willing, in fact, to talk to anybody."
A member of parliament from the bloc of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, meanwhile, claimed US forces raided his office early on Wednesday and confiscated his personal weapons and a computer.
Baha al-Aaraji told AFP that US troops had arrived at his office in Kadhimiyah district of Baghdad at around 2:00am (2300 GMT Tuesday) and had confiscated a hand gun, a Kalashnikov and a personal computer. "We find that this provocative step is meant to drag the Sadr trend into confrontation," Aaraji said. "But we are sticking to our supportive stand to the government and to the Baghdad security plan."
