*******************************
BAGHDAD, April 17 (UPI) -- A top Iraqi official said the political situation in Iraq favors reconciliation as the Iraqi Accordance Front agrees to return to the central government.
Montaser al-Emareh, the head of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, said a new political environment came out of the conflict in Basra.
He said Basra gave Iraqi politicians a renewed sense of confidence in the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Al-Alam reported Wednesday.
Emareh emphasized Maliki did not target the militia loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, the Mahdi Army, but instead focused on "anti-government armed groups" in Basra, noting Maliki stood by Sadr in the call to deny political parties that retained their militias a role in the political process.
Meanwhile, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front agreed to return to the Maliki government.
"The Sunni parliamentary bloc agreed to return to the government and presented its candidates' names to Maliki to select those who will be appointed as ministers in the government," Dabbagh told Voices of Iraq.
Kurdish leaders reach oil-law deal with Baghdad
**************************EXCERPT*******************
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Iraq's central government and the Kurdish region have reached a deal on an oil law, including a method for weighing the validity of the oil deals the Kurds have signed with foreign firms, the top government spokesman said yesterday.
Ali al-Dabbagh said an agreement also has been reached on the classification and funding for the Kurds' security forces, the Peshmerga, which will become a battalion within the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. And he said the sides agreed to allow the U.N. process for determining the future of oil-rich Kirkuk and other disputed territories to play out.