DUKAN, Dec 29: Iraq’s most powerful Shia politician met its Kurdish president at a lakeside retreat on Thursday to sketch out plans for a grand coalition government after an election that left rival factions fiercely at odds.

Abdul Aziz al Hakim arrived in the mountain resort of Dukan, in the Kurdish north, for talks with President Jalal Talabani amid growing concern it could be many weeks before a viable government emerges after disputes over the poll results.

Aziz Hakim’s Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq sits in a Shia coalition that appears to have dominated the vote. The coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), wants to press on with forming a government and has insisted it should choose the next prime minister.

But Sunni and secular politicians say the election was fraudulent and have demanded a rerun, at least in key areas like Baghdad, where the UIA did surprisingly well. Tens of thousands of angry Sunnis have marched through cities across Iraq to contest the vote.

Iraq’s electoral commission insists the election was largely fair, and that while isolated cases of fraud might result in cancellation of a few ballot boxes, that will not affect the overall result. The United Nations agrees.

Perhaps sensing that a rerun is now out of the question, some Sunni leaders scaled back their demands on Thursday, saying they would be satisfied with a UN review of the results, which have yet to be officially confirmed.

The leaders said they planned to travel to Kurdistan to join the ongoing discussions — but only to discuss the election results, not the shape of the future government.

“There will be no negotiations about forming the new government,” said Hussein al Falluji, a leading member of the biggest Sunni coalition, the Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF).

“We will not have any dialogue about it, not with the Kurds and not with the Shia. Results should be reviewed and announced first.”

Mr Hakim opened a new stage in talks on Tuesday night by meeting Kurdish regional leader Masoud Barzani in his stronghold of Arbil before travelling to Dukan at the head of a 20-strong UIA delegation to meet Mr Talabani, the other main Kurdish leader.

Before entering the meeting, Mr Hakim reiterated his pledge to seek a national unity government to satisfy all Iraq’s sects and ethnic groups, including the Sunni community.

Sunnis had hoped their participation in the Dec 15 election would give them a powerful voice in the new legislature.—Reuters