A leading Sunni Arab politician is predicting that Thursday’s parliamentary elections in Iraq will pave the way for negotiations between the US and Sunni leaders on reducing the violence.

Saleh al-Mutlek, a prominent candidate on the list of the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, one of two new Sunni-led coalitions contesting the elections to the first permanent postwar parliament, said such talks could get US troops out of Iraq cities and isolate radicals responsible for attacks on civilians.