Neighbors Plan to Help Fight Rebels

Leaders gathering this week for a conference on Iraq’s future are planning to give strong backing to the interim government’s war against insurgents.

Despite a push by France and some Arab countries, the leaders won’t set a deadline for withdrawing U.S.-led forces from Iraq.

The draft communique for the conference that began Monday also says the interim Iraqi government should meet with its opponents to try to persuade them to take part in parliamentary elections scheduled for January.

Iraq asked Egypt to convene the conference to bolster world support for its battle against insurgents and its plan to hold national elections.

The meeting brings together Iraq’s six neighbors -- Iran, Syria, Turkey, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia -- as well as Egypt and several other Arab countries, China and other bodies such as the Group of Eight, the United Nations, the European Union, the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Syria’s foreign minister, Farouk Shareh, tried to seek support for setting a deadline for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq.

But the draft communique -- which the Egyptian foreign minister said late Monday had been endorsed by the conference -- allows the Iraqi government to decide when the U.S.-led troops should depart.

For all its bloodshed, the insurgency enjoys a certain support in the Arab world, where many people regard the U.S. and other troops as occupiers.

In a clear rebuff to such sympathies, the draft communique says the participants condemn “all acts of terrorism in Iraq.”

In what could be the most contentious part of the conference, Iraq has said it will ask neighboring states to tighten their borders against the infiltration of would-be insurgents and to share information about groups supporting the militants.

“Certainly, some brothers and leaders in some neighboring nations did not do enough,” interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said. “They should have tried to help us at a time when we needed help.”