Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari yesterday called on his neighboring nations to help prevent the infiltration of foreign terrorists into Iraq as a series of attacks around the country killed at least a dozen Iraqis and one American soldier.

　　His appeal came one day after a top US military official said that the leaders of Iraq's most notorious terrorist group recently held a secret meeting in neighboring Syria, where they plotted the recent wave of insurgent violence that has killed hundreds of people.

　　"There are infiltrations of non-Iraqis through the border to carry out sabotage activities," al-Jaafari said of the meeting that may have possibly been attended by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi himself. "It's up to our geographical neighbors. We are keen to preserve relations between us and neighboring countries, and these relations should be good."

　　He was speaking after a meeting with US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who arrived in Baghdad for meetings with the government.

　　Zoellick said that al-Zarqawi's aim was to divide Iraqi society.

　　"Part of these attacks stem from the successes of the new government. The insurgents wanted to stop the elections and failed. The insurgents wanted to stop the formation of a new Iraqi government and they failed, so now they are trying to split the society," Zoellick said.

　　The alleged Syrian meeting has led to one of the bloodiest periods since the US-led invasion two years ago. Nearly 500 people have been killed - including an Oil Ministry employee gunned down in front of his house yesterday - since the country's new Shiite-dominated government was announced on April 28.

　　In the most deadly incident yesterday, eight people were reportedly killed and three were injured in an ambush attempt in the northern city of Mosul against Fawaz al-Jarba, a member of the Iraqi National Assembly who was a recent candidate for parliament speaker.

　　At least eight bodies were taken to the Jamhouri Teaching Hospital after they were killed in or near al-Jabra's house, according to Dr Bahaa-Eddine al-Bakri.

　　As of Tuesday, at least 1,622 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

　　Amid the violence, Iran's foreign minister met yesterday with Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric in the holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad.

　　Kamal Kharrazi, the highest level official from any of Iraq's six neighbors to visit Iraq since Saddam Hussein's ouster two years ago, met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. No details were available, but both men have called for calm in Iraq amid an increased number of apparent tit-for-tat killings between the Shiite and Sunni populations.

　　Also this week, a chilling, rambling Internet audiotape purportedly by al-Zarqawi surfaced. It denounced Iraq's Shiites as US collaborators and said killing them is justified. The Jordanian born al-Zarqawi and his key militant leadership have met at least five times in foreign countries during the conflict, most recently during the past 30 days in Syria, the US official said.

　　(The Associated Press)