'Iraq will remain united'

A member of the Iraqi opposition has insisted the country will remain united in its fight for democracy and rejected claims of division as a "fallacy".

Representatives from Iraq's political groups and independent journalists gathered in central London to discuss the shaping of the nation once Saddam Hussein's regime has been toppled.

Sharif Ali Hussain of the Monarchist Constitutional Movement (MCM) said Iraq was a sovereign state working together for democracy.

"Iraq will not split up into different groups, this is a fallacy, there is no empirical evidence for that," he said.

"No Iraqi community, no Iraqi group wishes to break away or split up the country. The struggle of the Iraqi people was against dictatorship, not against each other.

"The Iraqi communities have never had a civil war in recent history and by recent I mean several centuries."

Mr Hussain pointed out that Iraq was one of the founding members of the UN and the first Arab nation to join the League of Nations.

"Iraq has a very good history in its diplomatic relations and its role in the international community before Saddam Hussein," he said.

"All Iraqis want Iraq to be a force of stability for the region, to be stable internally and we all reject dictatorship and the adventurism of dictatorship."

Mr Hussain said the combined Iraqi opposition groups wanted the "immediate transfer of authority" to the Iraqi people.

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