(Adds U.S. reaction)

By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Iraq's Shi'ite prime minister called on Saturday for the return of all officers of Saddam Hussein's disbanded army in a political overture to disaffected Sunni Arabs aimed at reducing sectarian violence.

Nuri al-Maliki made the call at a national reconciliation conference of Shi'ites, Sunni Arab and Kurdish politicians meant to halt communal bloodshed that has raised the spectre of civil war and was a major reason for U.S. President George W. Bush's decision to review his Iraq strategy.

A senior politician from the powerful Shi'ite Alliance said representatives of some Sunni Arab insurgent groups were in attendance, but delegates said participants' names would remain undisclosed.

"The new Iraqi army is opening the door to former Iraqi army officers. Those who do not come back will be given pensions," Maliki said, in remarks in which he also told leaders to embrace reconciliation as a "safety net from death and destruction".

Shortly after the U.S. invasion to topple Saddam, U.S. administrator Paul Bremer dissolved the Iraqi army, a move experts said drove many Sunni Arab soldiers and officers into the mostly Sunni insurgency fighting the Shi'ite-led government.

The White House praised Maliki's speech but did not specifically cite the call for the return of officers.

"We're encouraged by Prime Minister Maliki's speech this morning in Baghdad," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.

"He reiterated his commitment to bringing militias and insurgents under control and halting the violence. He is clearly in favour of forming an Iraq based on national unity and not individual sects."

Iraqi officials said Maliki's call was also part of a four-step plan to speed up the transfer of security from multi-national forces to Iraqis. The plan includes expanding Iraq's forces and providing them with better training, equipment and weapons.

The Defence Ministry has recruited former Saddam officers, but only junior officers. Maliki's plea, addressing a long-time demand by Sunnis, was the first extended to all ranks.

ARMED GROUPS

The U.S. military has been training the new, 300,000-strong Iraqi army as part of a plan eventually to withdraw its 135,000 troops. Bush and Maliki last month agreed to speed up training.

The conference, which officials said was attended by figures from Saddam's former Baath party who have been living abroad since his ouster, takes place against a backdrop of violence that U.N. officials estimate kills more than 100 people a day.

Maliki's Shi'ite-led coalition government, which took office seven months ago, has said it would not talk to armed groups with "Iraqi blood on their hands", a comment aimed mainly at Sunni Islamist al Qaeda. But it has extended an olive branch to armed groups that stop fighting and join the political process.

"I know that there are armed groups here today but I don't know who they are," Rida Jawad Takki from the Shi'ite Alliance told Reuters.

Iraq has held conferences before that were designed to bring about reconciliation but they failed to stop sectarian killing or bring into the fold some disaffected Sunni groups.

"If things remain the way they are this reconciliation conference will resemble its predecessors," said Saleem al-Jibouri, from the Accordance Front, the largest Sunni bloc.

Many participants, some talking off the record, cast doubt that the conference would bring immediate solutions.

"This conference does not have a magic wand to change things overnight," Takki said.

In a separate development, Iraqi leaders said they started official talks on Saturday to try to form a political coalition to support the government and bridge the country's ethnic and sectarian divide.

The government is now made up of competing ethnic and sectarian blocs whose infighting has paralysed decision-making and has so far failed in pushing through legislation on issues such as disbanding militias.

Hours before the conference opened in the Green Zone, Iraqi special forces backed by U.S. troops killed one militant and arrested six people during raids against a death squad leader in the Baghdad Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City.

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