Amnesty may be offered to rebels

IRAQ'S prime minister may offer amnesty to insurgents and could extend it to those who killed American troops in an apparent bid to lure Saddam Hussein loyalists from their campaign of violence.

A spokesman for Iyad Allawi went as far as to suggest attacks on US troops over the past year were legitimate acts of resistance - a sign of the new government's desire to distance itself from the 14-month US-led occupation of Iraq.

"If he (a guerrilla) was in opposition against the Americans, that will be justified because it was an occupation force," the spokesman, Georges Sada, said. "We will give them freedom."

Choking the brutal 14-month insurgency is the top priority of Mr Allawi's government, and the prime minister is expected to make a number of security-related policy announcements in coming days.

Besides the amnesty plan, those include the resurrection of Iraq's death penalty and an emergency law that sets curfews in Iraq's trouble spots, said Sada.

The amnesty plan is still in the works. A full pardon for insurgents who killed Americans is not a certainty, Sada said. Mr Allawi's main goal is to "start everything from new" by giving a second chance to rebel fighters who hand in their weapons and throw their weight behind the new government.

"There is still heavy discussion about this," said Sada. He said the US Embassy has encouraged Mr Allawi to try creative solutions to end the insurgency as long as they don't infringe on human rights.

Analysts say Mr Allawi's plan is critical to ending a grinding rebellion in Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland. Especially worrying for Allawi's government is recent evidence that shows secular fighters - ex-members of Saddam's Baath Party - forming an alliance with Islamists.

Some type of amnesty is needed to coax Iraqi nationalist guerrillas to the government's side, while separating them from fighters using terrorist-style bombings, experts say.

"It's hard to imagine any way forward other than co-opting people who had previously fought against the US," said Jon Alterman, a Middle East expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.