BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq's leading Sunni clerics group demanded a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops yesterday as the price for their participation in drawing up a new constitution, as more than 20 people were reportedly killed.

Italy meanwhile scrambled to secure the release of a woman reporter kidnapped in Baghdad, a day after an ultimatum posted on an Islamist website gave Rome 72 hours to order a pullout of its 3,000 troops.

Following talks with UN special envoy Ashraf Qazi, the Committee of Muslim Scholars said it was willing to take part in drafting a new constitution provided a consensus was found on a date for the departure of US-led troops.

"We told him (Qazi) that we had conditions and that we would discuss them with the parties that boycotted the polls and would put forward a common stance," said spokesman Omar Ragheb.

"These demands focus on reaching a consensus with all political parties on a withdrawal of foreign forces," he added.

The committee, which persuaded the main Sunni religious faction, the Islamic Party, to boycott last Sunday's election, hinted that it would press Sunni Arab insurgents to abandon their campaign of violence if its demands were met. "Then, the country's elders will tell the resistance: 'No need to spill more blood'," Ragheb said.

Many observers believe that the constitution, which the national assembly is supposed to draw up, will only command nationwide respect if the Sunni Arab elite that dominated all previous governments, is drawn into the process.

Italy was meanwhile rocked by a new hostage crisis following Friday's abduction of Giuliana Sgrena, 56, correspondent for the leftist Il Manifesto.

She was snatched after visiting a mosque where refugees have been encamped since the devastating US-led assault on Fallujah in November. The area has become a notorious danger zone for journalists.

French reporter Florence Aubenas disappeared early last month as she worked on the same story, while another Western reporter escaped a kidnap attempt in the same area 10 days ago.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said late Friday that "the negotiating machinery has been set in motion" to press for Sgrena's release.

But Italian officials had no immediate comment on the authenticity of the Internet ultimatum posted in the name of the Islamic Jihad Organisation. On the ground 16 people were killed in a string of ambushes and clashes, including a tribal leader, one of three people gunned down in fighting between insurgents and US troops near the restive Sunni stronghold of Ramadi.

Dead bodies of two Iraqi soldiers were also found in the city, said another police officer, who requested anonymity.
In the south, four Iraqi soldiers perished in a rare bomb attack in the largely Shiite city of Basra, when a booby-trapped motorcycle exploded.

In the Sunni Arab heartland north of Baghdad, a roadside bombing killed two US troops and wounded four, the US military said. Six people, including three Iraqi soldiers and two children were killed in separate incidents in Samarra.

Another soldier was killed in clashes in the nearby town of Dhuluiya.
Meanwhile, militants loyal to an al-Qaeda-linked group said they had executed seven Iraqi security personnel abducted west of Baghdad.

Minister Grange tours new BBC studios

Guinness Sounds of Greatness creating a dancehall for everyone

Tarrus Riley shoots video for Start Anew