All of them were members or sympathisers with Saddam's outlawed Baath party, Fedayeen militia and Mukhabarat intelligence network, or had received military honours from the Baathist movement, a parliamentary official told MPs.

The names of blacklisted candidates, including that of a prominent Sunni lawmaker, have been given to their respective parties who have three days to appeal the decision, which has alarmed Washington and the United Nations.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, however, denied that Sunnis were being targeted ahead of the election and defended the process, comparing Baathists to Nazis, who should be excluded accordingly.

"The Sunnis will be much more important partners this time than at the last election," Maliki told the state run Al-Iraqiya television channel, noting that only "criminals" and "murderers" would be adversely affected.

"Yes, there are a lot of Sunnis (on the blacklist) but there are maybe more Shiites," he said, pointing out that 70 percent of the outlawed Baath's membership was Shiite.

"The (Iraqi) constitution prevents the existence of this organisation just as European countries prohibit Nazis. We have no intention of reconciling with those who regard Osama bin Laden as a Muslim chief, or Saddam as a martyr."

The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), Iraq's election organiser, last week announced about 500 people had been banned from taking part in the ballot, the second such vote since a US-led invasion toppled Saddam in 2003.

The list was compiled by an integrity and accountability committee, headed by Shiite politician and former post-invasion deputy prime minister Ahmed Chalabi, whose job is to vet applicants and purge unsuitable contenders.

It has not been published, however, and the exclusion of such a high number of election hopefuls could spark sectarian tension and jeopardise the war-torn nation's fragile national reconciliation process, analysts say.

The lack of transparency over the process has also attracted the attention of the White House and US diplomats in Baghdad.

US Vice President Joe Biden has spoken about the issue by telephone with Maliki, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni.

"Anyone who has an objection can go to the appeals committee, within the next 72 hours," Falah Hassan Shanshal, head of a separate accountability and justice committee, asked by parliament to investigate the list, told lawmakers.

Saleh al-Mutlak, a leading Sunni MP and persistent critic of Maliki's Shiite-dominated government, is among those who have been barred.

Shanshal gave parliament a detailed breakdown of 511 blacklisted candidates.

He said 216 -- including 13 mid-ranking members -- were in the Baath party, and a further 182 belonged to Saddam's Fedayeen (Men of Sacrifice), and the Mukhabarat.

"The committee also eliminated 105 officers from military associations, including divisional commanders with the rank of major general or brigadier general, who had been decorated by the Baath party," Shanshal said.

"Five candidates who participated in putting down the Shia uprising (against Saddam in southern Iraq following the first Gulf War in 1991), were also eliminated, as well as three other individuals who had spread Baathist ideas."

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh confirmed Biden has discussed the matter with Maliki, Talabani and Hashemi in recent days but Baghdad's view was "it is not good to politicise the issue."

A statement issued separately by Hashemi's office said Biden criticised the blacklisting process and suggested that any exclusions procedure be deferred until after the vote to avoid Sunnis shunning the election in large numbers, as they did in 2005.

The election is seen as key to consolidating Iraq's fledgling democracy and ensuring a smooth exit of US combat troops from the country by August this year ahead of a complete American military withdrawal by the end of 2011.

earlier related report
Minister insists Britain wanted diplomatic solution on Iraq
London (AFP) Jan 19, 2010 - The first former cabinet minister to give evidence to the Iraq war inquiry insisted on Tuesday that Britain had always wanted a diplomatic solution to the crisis before the 2003 invasion.

Former defence secretary Geoff Hoon's testimony kicked off appearances from a series of ex-cabinet ministers before the eagerly awaited questioning of former prime minister Tony Blair on January 29.

Hoon said Britain had always hoped diplomatic efforts to disarm Iraq through the United Nations would bear fruit and he doubted that Blair had ever given the United States "unconditional" support for military action.

Blair's influential spokesman at the time of the war, Alastair Campbell, told the inquiry last week that Blair had sent secret notes to then US president George W. Bush in the months before the March 2003 invasion.

Campbell said that while Blair was pressing Bush to seek a diplomatic solution, he indicated in his notes he would support military action if the UN route failed.

Hoon was asked whether he, as defence minister, would not have expected to have been consulted if Blair were writing notes committing Britain to military action.

"I would have been and that is why I do not believe he was ever unconditionally committing us to anything," Hoon said. "I think that right up until the vote in the House of Commons our attitude towards the use of force was always conditional."

Hoon was referring to the March 2003 vote in which British lawmakers backed the use of military force against Saddam Hussein's regime.

On Blair's talks with Bush at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, in April 2002, Hoon said he had not been briefed directly on what was said at the meeting.

Declassified letters released by the inquiry show that Peter Goldsmith, then attorney general -- the government's top legal advisor -- warned Hoon in April 2002 there were "considerable difficulties" in justifying military action.

But Hoon said that by March 7, 2003, shortly before the US-led invasion, Goldsmith was advising the government that an invasion would not be illegal.

"I was clear that his conclusion was that there was a legal justification for military action," Hoon told the inquiry. "He says so categorically." Goldsmith is due to give evidence on January 27, two days before Blair.

Hoon said he had believed Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD) was "content" with the controversial claim in a government dossier used to make the case for war that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes.

David Kelly, an MoD weapons expert who believed he may have been the source of the 45-minute claim later committed suicide. Officials had confirmed his name as the source to some journalists.

Hoon admitted he had not seen the 45 minute claim before it appeared in the draft dossier but, after seeking and receiving a satisfactory explanation from officials, thought little more of it.

He added he was unaware for months after the 2003 invasion why near-blanket press coverage of the 45 minute issue later became controversial until he saw a BBC documentary on it.

He explained this by saying "I had been in Kiev for a couple of days" at the crucial time and had not seen newspaper headlines.

Hoon, defence minister from 1999 to 2005, identified mid-2002 as the period when it became clear that Washington "meant business" over Iraq, because the United States was deeply traumatised over the September 11, 2001 attacks and perceived Saddam as another threat.

He said that as early as October 2002 he told Blair that a decision on military action was necessary because he felt it was essential that the armed forces be given time to prepare.

Hoon admitted he had feared the British armed forces would struggle to meet the demands of a full-scale military invasion of Iraq because they were already deeply committed in Afghanistan following the 2001 invasion.

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