Bush presses Maliki on Iraq reconciliation laws

By Tabassum Zakaria

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush told Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday that his government must do more to help advance national reconciliation.

Meeting Maliki on the sidelines of a U.N. General Assembly session, Bush pressed the Iraqi leader on getting parliament to pass laws aimed at healing bitter sectarian divisions more than four years after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.

"We spent time talking about reconciliation in law," Bush told reporters while seated next to Maliki with top U.S. and Iraqi officials in the room.

"And the prime minister and speaker are dedicated to getting good law out of the assembly. And the political parties in Iraq must understand the importance of getting these laws passed," Bush said.

"We have made it very clear and emphasized that the future of Iraq goes through the gates of national reconciliations, of political agreements," Maliki said through a translator.

The meeting came after a deadly shooting involving Blackwater contractors who provide security for the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. But neither Bush nor Maliki responded to a shouted question about whether Blackwater was discussed.

Iraq's Interior Ministry has finished draft legislation that would end legal immunity for private security contractors in the wake of the Sept. 16 shooting in which 11 people were killed while Blackwater was escorting a U.S. embassy convoy through Baghdad.

Maliki had called the shooting a crime and vowed to freeze the work of Blackwater and prosecute its staff. But Iraq has since appeared to soften its stand.