Sunni enclave barrier 'to protect, not segregate'

US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker today said the American military would "respect the wishes" of the Iraqi government regarding a barrier being built around a Sunni enclave in Baghdad.

But he stopped short of saying construction would stop.

Ambassador Crocker spoke at a news conference a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said he had ordered the building of the barrier in Azamiyah to stop after the project drew strong criticism from residents and Sunni leaders.

"Obviously we will respect the wishes of the government and the prime minister," Mr Crocker said. "I'm not sure where we are right now concerning our discussions on how to move forward on this particular issue."

But he defended the principle behind the Azamiyah barrier, saying it was aimed at protecting the community, not segregating it.

Mr Crocker, who replaced Zalmay Khalilzad as ambassador, said "these months ahead are going to be critical" and he urged Iraqi legislators to pass key legislation that it is hoped will help bring minority Sunnis into the political process.

He said the security plan was important, but its main purpose was to "buy time" for what ultimately has to be a set of political understandings among Iraqis.

"Clearly the road is going to be a tough one," he said. "It's going to be very, very difficult, but I certainly believe success is possible otherwise I wouldn't be standing here."

As he spoke, hundreds of Iraqis took to the streets in the area in northern Baghdad to protest the wall's construction, which residents have complained would isolate them from the rest of the city.

Mr Crocker said the intention of the barrier in Azamiyah as well as those constructed around markets in the capital was "to try to identify where the fault lines are and where avenues of attack lie and set up the barriers literally to prevent those attacks".

"It is in no one's intention or thinking that this is going to be a permanent state of affairs," he added.

Mr Maliki said he had ordered a halt to the US military construction of the barrier, as he began a regional Mideast tour to shore up support from mostly Sunni Arab nations for his Shiite-dominated government.