US officials in talks with Iraqi insurgents: NYT

Citing a Western diplomat, an Iraqi political leader and an Iraqi insurgent leader, the Times said that the talks were also aimed at drawing the local leaders into the political process.

According to interviews with insurgents and both US and Iraqi officials, clashes between Iraqi groups and al-Qaeda have broken out in several cities across the Sunni Triangle and they appear to have intensified in recent months, the Times said.

A Western diplomat who supports the talks told the Times that the Americans had opened face-to-face discussions with insurgents in the field, and were also communicating with senior insurgent leaders through intermediaries.

The diplomat said the goal was to take advantage of rifts in the insurgency, in particular those between local groups, whose main goal is to expel US forces, and more radical groups like al-Qaeda, which have alienated many Iraqis with violent campaigns that have resulted in mass killings of Iraqi civilians.

The diplomat said the talks were taking place "inside and outside Iraq" and began in the fall around the time of the referendum on the new Iraqi constitution on October 15, the Times said. While US officials have made contact with insurgent groups in the past, the diplomat said the more recent contacts were far more significant.

In particular, the diplomat said the talks, of which few details were available, aimed to take advantage of a perceived willingness among Sunni Arabs to take part in politics after large numbers went to the polls for the first time.

Meanwhile, a US woman journalist was kidnapped by gunmen in the Iraqi capital yesterday and her translator killed, the latest Westerner seized by insurgents in the war-torn country.

"An American journalist is missing. We are investigating," said US embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Colton, who declined to name the missing reporter.

Iraqi security officials said a US woman journalist was abducted by armed men in the Adl district of western Baghdad and her translator found dead.

An Iraqi defence ministry official said the interpreter was able to tell soldiers that a US journalist was kidnapped before he died.