AMERICAN forces are negotiating an amnesty with Sunni insurgents in Iraq to try to defuse the nascent civil war and pave the way for disarmament of Shia militias, The Times has learnt.

The tactic marks a dramatic reversal of policy by the US military, which blocked attempts to pardon insurgents with American blood on their hands after handing over sovereignty to a secular Iraqi Government in June 2004.

The U-turn comes amid the bloodiest fighting for two years and growing domestic opposition to the war as Americans prepare to vote in crucial midterm elections.

Even as President Bush convened emergency talks with his generals and national security advisers to review strategy in Iraq, commanders on the ground were negotiating a peace deal. Observers expect leaders of the Sunni insurgency to join a peace conference early next month.

“There’s been a change in the position of the Americans,” Jabr Hadeeb Jabr, an independent Shia politician and member of the Council for Reconciliation government agency, said. “Before, they refused to give any amnesty to the people killing Americans because there was some dispute about the risk of rewarding their killers.”

Another Iraqi MP, Izzat Shabander, a member of the secular Iraqiya bloc, said: “This amnesty is coming because the American military are always pressuring the Iraqi Government to give a general amnesty to all fighters, even those who killed Iraqis.”

The proposed amnesty, which one Sunni politician said had been negotiated between the US and insurgents without involving the Government, came as a senior State Department official admitted that US policy in Iraq had been at times “stupid” and “arrogant”.

“We tried to do our best, but I think there is much room for criticism because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity from the United States in Iraq,” Alberto Fernandez, the director of public diplomacy at the department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, said. “We are open to dialogue because we all know that . . . the solution to the hell and the killings in Iraq is linked to an effective Iraqi national reconciliation.”

The violence continued yesterday when bombers attacked shoppers buying sweets for the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, killing at least nine. A US Marine died west of Baghdad, taking the number of US servicemen killed this month to 80 and making October the most deadly month for the US this year. At least 43 civilians have been killed every day this month.

Mr Jabr said it was possible that two of the main insurgent groups — the Islamic Army and the 1920s Revolutionary Brigades — could participate at a national reconciliation conference next month. Facing increasing losses of US soldiers, and with Iraq threatening to suck the entire region into a disastrous conflict, the Bush Administration is being forced to drop its “stay the course” policy and examine new options.

In tandem with the US initiative, Iraqi religious leaders are trying to stem the bloodshed.

On Friday, 29 senior Sunni and Shia leaders met in Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, to urge their communities not to shed Muslim blood, to free hostages and to allow hundreds of thousands of ethnically cleansed people to return home. But deadly bombings of markets over the weekend have dispelled hopes of a swift end to the killing.

Mr Jabr said that the Mecca fatwa, or edict, was aimed at isolating Iraqi nationalists from al-Qaeda fanatics, who have a global agenda of attacking the West and imposing an Islamic state on Iraq.

Salman al-Jumeili, a deputy from the main Sunni bloc, Twafoq, said that the amnesty reports had caught Sunni politicians by surprise. “I’m betting this must be part of a dialogue between the resistance and the Americans,” he said.

The plan — still officially under wraps — would be to isolate Iraqi guerrillas from al-Qaeda by offering an amnesty and a date for a US withdrawal, and to use the resistance’s highly sophisticated intelligence network to stamp out foreign Islamist fighters and criminal gangs.

“The promise that on a certain date [US forces] would leave the country is hugely important for Iraqi citizens. I think a great deal of the resistance would accept a general amnesty as an important step,” he said. But the Shia-dominated Government is dragging its heels about granting amnesty to fighters who have killed Iraqi policemen and soldiers.

Yesterday, gunmen in five cars ambushed a convoy of buses carrying police recruits near Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 15 and wounding 25 others.

Proponents of an amnesty hope that, once the threat from terrorist bombs has diminished, Shia militias would have no cause to remain under arms. Mr al-Maliki, whose two main Shia government partners run the two largest militias, might then be able to negotiate a disarmament programme.

US troops could deploy to neighbouring countries, leaving military advisers with Iraqi government troops. They would be ready to return if necessary. But huge obstacles remain. Mr Shabander said that some of the main Shia parties were reluctant because the sectarian conflict bolstered their agenda for an autonomous Shia region in the oil-rich south. Armed al-Qaeda militants paraded through city centres at the weekend, proving that they are far from being isolated from the community.

EXIT OPTIONS

Exit strategies under discussion include:

Cut and run: instant withdrawal of US forces despite probable civil war and regional meltdown

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