Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says national reconciliation has been a success, and all political blocs will rejoin the Iraqi government.
Mr. Maliki's office released that statement Thursday after the prime minister met with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband during a previously unannounced visit to Baghdad.
Iraq's largest Sunni Arab political bloc, the Accordance Front, pulled out of Mr. Maliki's government in August, saying his Shi'ite-led administration was not making enough concessions to the Sunni minority.
Reuters news agency quotes an Accordance Front spokesman, Salim al-Jubouri, as saying the party's return to the government is very close.
A Shi'ite party loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr left the government one year ago because Mr. Maliki did not set a date for foreign troops to withdraw.
The walkouts have hampered efforts to resolve tensions between Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunni Arab communities.
Also Thursday, Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters in Warsaw that a shell or rocket struck the Polish embassy in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. A guard was wounded.
Sikorski said the attack will not have an effect on Poland's military engagement in Iraq.
In other news, the U.S. military said coalition forces in Iraq killed four suspected Iranian-trained militants, and captured five others, during operations north of Baghdad.
The military says soldiers battled militants Thursday in Rashidiyah after apprehending a person suspected of receiving weapons and financing from Iran to lead attacks against coalition forces.
Some information for this report provided by AFP and Reuters.
