Top Shiites clash with Arabs over Iraq conference

The Iraqi government and Arab countries are engaged in bitter squabbling on the eve of a Baghdad conference that America hoped would finally unite them in efforts to stabilise the war-torn nation.

A move by Sunni-led Arab governments to use tomorrow’s conference to press for a greater Sunni role in Iraq has enraged Iraq’s Shiite leaders, who believe the Arabs are trying to reverse their new-found power after decades of being marginalised under Saddam Hussein’s Sunni minority rule.