Iraq's main Sunni Arab bloc on Saturday ended an almost year-long boycott of Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government, in a major boost for the country's reconciliation programme.
  
Parliament overwhelmingly endorsed the appointment of six Sunni ministers from the country's main Sunni bloc, the National Concord Front, in a session attended by 190 MPs of the 275-member assembly.
  
The MPs also approved the appointment of four independents to replace ministers from the political bloc of radical Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, which has boycotted the government since April last year.
  
One of the six Sunni ministers, Rafie al-Issawi, was voted in as a deputy prime minister to Maliki.
  
Issawi was minister of state for foreign affairs between 2005 and 2007.
  
Sunnis will also hold five other posts -- the higher education, culture and communications ministerial posts, as well as ministers of state for foreign affairs and women's affairs.
  
The four independents to replace the Sadrists will hold the posts of transport minister and ministers of state for tourism, provincial affairs and civil society.
  
The Sunni bloc, which has 44 MPs in the parliament, withdrew its ministers in August last year in protest at what it viewed as the monopolisation of power by the other factions in government -- the Shiites and Kurds.
  
One of the six later rejoined the cabinet and was expelled from the Sunni bloc.
  
Sunni leaders had been insisting that the Iraqi security forces release many Sunni prisoners they believed had been unjustifiably detained.
  
The National Concord Front also wanted a general amnesty declared as well as greater Sunni participation in the decision-making of a government dominated by Shiites.
  
The Sunni boycott dealt a severe blow to Maliki's claims that he headed a unity government and with a series of other walk-outs, including by the Sadrists, his 40-member cabinet earlier this year shrunk to almost half.
  
It is unclear whether the conditions put forward by the Sunnis for their return to government have been met, but in recent months relations between Maliki and Sunni Arab leaders have warmed following his decision to target Shiite militiamen.
  
Sunni Arab leaders regularly accused Maliki and his government of turning a blind eye towards Shiite militias which allegedly kidnapped and killed members of their community after sectarian conflict erupted in 2006.
  
Maliki in March launched a series of crackdowns against Shiite militiamen starting in the southern oil city of Basra. Sadr's Baghdad bastion of Sadr City soon followed, and the focus is now on the southern province of Maysan.
  
Sadrists continue to boycott the government while the Sunnis appear to have lost the planning ministry to the Shiites after they expelled Ali Babban, the minister who refused to keep last year's boycott and rejoined the cabinet.