MIDDLE EAST Iraq eases security after election

Authorities estimate that nearly 70 percent of registered voters cast ballots.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Cars and trucks returned to Iraq's roads Saturday as authorities eased tight security imposed for the parliamentary election, and the main Sunni Arab alliance said it was open to forming a governing coalition with a religious Shiite bloc.
With Thursday's voting held peacefully, Iraqi officials also reopened border crossings, except on the frontier with Syria. They said the Syrian crossings would resume in a few days, but did not say why there was a delay.
There were few violent episodes reported for a third day. In four shootings, attackers killed a former Iraqi air force officer, a member of a prominent Shiite party and two policemen, authorities said. The U.S. command also reported the death of a Marine from a nonhostile wound.
Although no official vote figures have been released, authorities estimate just under 70 percent of Iraq's 15 million registered voters cast ballots Thursday.
Raising hopes
The big turnout -- particularly among the disaffected Sunni Arab minority that boycotted the election of a temporary legislature last January -- have boosted hopes that increasing political participation may undermine the insurgency and allow U.S. troops to begin pulling out next year.
"It is a great thing that the election was violence free, contrary to many elections in the world," Adnan al-Dulaimi, a former Islamic studies professor who heads the main Sunni Arab bloc, said at a news conference.
His Iraqi Accordance Front is expected to significantly increase the Sunni Arab presence in the 275-member parliament, where Sunnis won only 17 seats Jan. 30.
A day after saying he might be able to form a ruling coalition from Sunnis, secular Shiites and Kurds, Al-Dulaimi said he also would consider working with the now governing United Iraqi Alliance, a religious-based group whose supporters come from the country's Shiite majority. "We have to forget the past and we extend our hands to everybody," he said.
U.S. officials view al-Dulaimi as a possible intermediary who could persuade some Sunni-led insurgent groups in restive Anbar province to give up violence and join the political process. President Bush planned to make a broadcast address on Iraq tonight.
Al-Dulaimi predicted Friday that the Shiite religious parties will be unable to put together a government even though they are widely expected to hold the largest number of seats and thus have the first chance at forming a coalition.
At least 2,154 American military personnel have died from combat and other causes since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.