Foreign and Arab officials pose for a group picture during the opening session of a ministerial conference on Iraq in Kuwait City on April 22.

A meeting of Iraq’s neighbors has opened in Kuwait with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki trying to persuade Arab states that his country has “passed the crisis“ and is much better off than it was a year ago.
Maliki urged the oil-rich Persian Gulf states on Tuesday to help stabilize Iraq by living up to pledges to forgive his country’s debt and reopen embassies in Baghdad, AP said.
“The bill of debt and compensation Iraq is paying is causing a heavy damage to our infrastructure and national economy,“ Maliki told the opening session of a ministerial conference on Iraq.
“We are still waiting for implementing pledges and commitments made to waive loans and compensation,“ the Iraqi premier told the session attended by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in particular had agreed to substantially cut debt owed by Iraq estimated at tens of billions of dollars. Iraq has been demanding that this be translated into action like other nations.

Diplomatic Relations
Maliki also complained that resolutions and decisions made at the previous two conferences of foreign ministers have not been implemented, especially reopening of embassies by Persian Gulf Arab nations.
“It is very difficult to find a reasonable explanation for not resuming diplomatic relations with Iraq at ambassador level. There had been pledges but they have not materialized,“ Maliki told the conference attended by Iraq’s neighbors and major powers in Kuwait.
“Sending ambassadors to Baghdad will help establish security and stability,“ he said.
Rice too has issued repeated calls for Arab states to send ambassadors to Baghdad.
Arab countries have linked the issue to an improvement in the security situation in the war-torn nation.
Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Sabah said on Sunday that the emirate will soon name an ambassador to Baghdad and was looking for a building for its embassy in the high security compound that houses the Iraqi government and US embassy.
But he denied that the decision had been taken in response to US pressure.
Violence
In another development in Iraq, coalition soldiers killed 23 insurgents and captured 42 more in the four days ending Monday, UPI quoted a US military spokesman as saying.
Among those captured was a special group commander and three others described by the military as suspected criminals in the Kadamiyah district of Baghdad, the Armed Forces Press Service said.
Iraqi security and coalition force soldiers are targeting criminals who violate the Iraqi rule of law, said US Army Col. Allen Batschelet, chief of staff for Multinational Division Baghdad.
Meanwhile, three police officers and three Mahdi Army militiamen were killed in battles south of Baghdad, an Iraqi official said. And at least four people were injured in the Iraqi capital when bombs landed near the prime minister’s headquarters, CNN reported.
Also, the US military launched unmanned aerial drones to find and destroy Special Group criminals, the military said. The maneuver is part of the military’s efforts to stop rocket attacks by Shiite fighters in Baghdad’s Sadr City.

Work on Sudan’s first census since a landmark 2005 north-south peace deal began on Tuesday after months of wrangling, with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir the first to be counted at midnight.
Streets in the capital Khartoum were quiet on the national holiday after police told people to stay at home to be counted in the census. The count will help to determine the distribution of wealth and power and to set constituencies before Sudan’s first democratic elections in 23 years due next year, Reuters said.
But reflecting the disharmony in Africa’s largest country, the south reserved the right not to be bound by the results of the count saying millions of southerners displaced to the north during the war should go home first and that questions on ethnicity and religion be inserted into the questionnaire.
And hundreds of thousands of victims of a separate five-year conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region also rejected the census saying they did not trust the government.
The census will continue for two weeks with final results not expected before September.

US President George W. Bush hosts Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas this week, ramping up Middle East peace efforts before returning to the region next month.
Bush, who traveled there in January, is heading back to attend ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the modern state of Israel as well as push the parties towards a peace deal he wants before his term ends in January 2009.
Palestinian sources say the US president will meet Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at an Egypt-hosted summit in May.
White House aides say a world economic forum, not joint peace talks, are on the agenda in Egypt, AFP reported.
US officials also say they are watching US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s ongoing trip to the Middle East.
In the meantime, Bush hosts King Abdullah on Wednesday for talks on how to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and efforts to deal with the political crisis in Lebanon, according to a White House statement.

Palestinian Muslim worshippers walk past the Dome of the Rock at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound after Friday Prayers.

Hamas is ready to accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders but “it will not recognize Israel,“ the resistance movement’s chief Khaled Meshaal told a news conference late Monday.
“We accept a Palestinian state within the June 4, 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital -- a sovereign state without settlements -- as well as the right of Palestinian refugees to return, but without recognition of Israel,“ he said, AFP reported.
Meshaal was making his first public comment following two meetings in Damascus with former US president Jimmy Carter, who said earlier Hamas told him it would accept the right of Israel “to live as a neighbor“ if a peace deal was approved by a Palestinian referendum.
“We refuse to talk directly with the Israelis. There are indirect negotiations concerning the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and an exchange of prisoners. But we are vetoing direct negotiations“ with Israel, insisted Meshaal.

Hamas-US Talks
But the Palestinian leader said, however, that Hamas was ready to hold discussions with US officials. “We have no problem having talks with the United States,“ he said.
Meshaal praised Carter for his “audacious and courageous“ decision to meet Hamas officials, despite opposition from Israel and the United States, which consider the group a terrorist organization.
The Hamas chief told reporters that he had “rejected a proposal presented by Carter for a unilateral ceasefire“.
“He asked Hamas to stop launching rockets on Israel for 30 days in order to reach a truce.“
But “Hamas wants a reciprocal ceasefire, the cessation of (Israeli) aggression and the blockade (on Gaza) lifted,“ he said.
Meshaal said he had also informed the former US president that “Hamas would prefer that the indirect negotiations on a prisoner exchange continue under the auspices of Egypt.“

Not Confident
Meanwhile the White House said it took “with a grain of salt“ Carter’s announcement that Hamas may conditionally recognize Israel’s right to live in peace, AFP said Tuesday.
“We take it with a grain of salt,“ White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said aboard Air Force One with President George W. Bush en route to New Orleans.
“And we have to look at public comments, and we also have to look at actions. And actions speak louder than words,“ she said.
She also repeated the Bush administration’s opposition to Carter’s meeting with Hamas last week.
“I think you have to look at the public comments of Hamas, and beyond that, look at the behavior,“ she said.

No Change
In another development, Israeli officials said on Tuesday that they saw no change in policy by Hamas that would justify opening a dialogue with the resistance movement.
“Hamas has not changed its position -- the movement still does not recognize the state of Israel and does not accept a definitive peace accord,“ senior Defense Ministry official, Amos Gilad, told army radio.
“Hamas says it wants a period of calm, but who knows whether this movement at any moment can change its mind and decide to relaunch its terrorist activities,“ Gilad said.

Lebanon’s parliament speaker Tuesday announced the postponement of the latest scheduled session to elect a state president amid continuing political deadlock.
Nabih Berri, the speaker and opposition leader, made the announcement on state television but reiterated an invitation to Lebanon’s rival factions to hold talks on the formation of a national unity government and a new electoral law under his auspices, AFP reported.
“If they agree to dialogue, together we will set a date for the vote,“ Berri said, adding that he would set the date for a new session himself if he did not get a positive response to his appeal.
The 18th attempt to elect a president was postponed despite the presence in parliament of a number of MPs from the rival groupings, which Berri said did not reach the requisite two-thirds quorum to hold the vote.
Tuesday’s session had not in any case been expected to lead to a breakthrough in the 16-month standoff. Before the announcement, Berri had held a closed door meeting with Walid Jumblatt, a leader in the ruling coalition.
“We hope for a positive response to Berri’s initiative, and if they don’t want the dialogue, they should tell us what our other options are,“ said Ali Bazzi, an MP of Berri’s Amal party.
Lebanon is mired in its worst political crisis since the end of its 1975-1990 civil war pitting the ruling coalition against the opposition.
The country has been without a president since late November when Emile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his mandate.

WASHINGTON - Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas will visit the United States around April 24 for talks with George W. Bush to try to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

MINSK - President Alexander Lukashenko gives annual state of the nation address to parliament.

ANKARA - Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talatis due for talks with Turkish President Abdullah Gul on recent Cyprus peace efforts to unify island.

CANBERRA - The Beijing Olympic torch arrives in Canberra as part of its 130-day relay.

YEREVAN - Armenia and its supporters around the world mark “Armenian genocide day“. Turkey denies claims its forces committed genocide against ethnic Armenians in World War I.