Iraq president says will sign Baath party law

By Mustapha Mahmoud

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's president said on Saturday he would back a law that would give thousands of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party their old jobs back.

Iraq's Shi'ite-led government passed the "Accountability and Justice Law" last month, winning praise from Washington for helping to promote reconciliation between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs who were dominant under Saddam Hussein.

"It is a good law for the current situation," President Jalal Talabani told reporters in the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk. "I agree with this law and I personally will sign it."

Earlier this week, Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, said he would not back the legislation.

He said it was flawed because it would force many people given jobs after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion out of those posts so that ex-Baathists could return.

Hashemi had said Talabani, a Kurd, and Shi'ite Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the other two members of the Presidency Council, would also not sign off on it.

All members of the council must sign off on laws passed by parliament, otherwise they are sent back to the legislature.

"I had already signed a blueprint of this law before sending it to parliament," Talabani said.