Secretary-General of the 22-member Arab League (AL) Amr Moussa inaugurated a three-day preparatory meeting here on Tuesday for an Iraqi national reconciliation conference.

The participants were due to determine a date for the Iraqi national reconciliation conference, issues to be discussed as well as a list of participants.

Hesham Youssef, an advisor to Moussa, told Xinhua that the preparatory meeting would witness the participation of people who did not show up in a previous preparatory meeting last November.

He said that under the current circumstances in Iraq, it was important for the right people to attend the conference, and one of criteria for choosing participants relied on their willingness to be part of Iraqi political life.

He said that a committee consisting of about 20 Iraqi personalities would be formed to follow up the implementation of

recommendations of the conference.

Earlier in the day, AL Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ahmed bin Helli said that the conference would be attended by nearly 34 Iraqi figures representing all factions.

He said that the preparatory meeting would be used to prepare for the Iraqi national reconciliation conference and update agenda to cope with the latest developments in Iraq.

Dialogue was the best way to stop violence in Iraq, he said.

The Iraqi government under Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is expected to hold the reconciliation conference in Baghdad in early August with support of the Cairo-based Arab League.

The reconciliation conference was originally planned on June 20, but it was postponed due to continuing violence in the troubled country and stalled political process.

Source: Xinhua