A senior member of Iraq's largest Shi'ite party met with Sunni tribal sheikhs on Sunday, in a rare visit to the Sunni stronghold of Anbar province.

As the United States makes progress in talks with Sunni and Shi'ite tribal leaders toward ending the armed conflict in Iraq, Iraqi politicians who form the core of the opposition are facing defections from cabinet members who would rather return to work than support their boycott of the government.

Secret talks between Sunni and Shi'ite groups finished Monday, its unknown if there was some progress toward ending sectarian violence in Iraq, organizers said.

An agreement was forged this week between the Sunni Arab-led Iraqi Islamic Party and the country's Shi'ite and Kurdish leaderships calling for the revocation of the de-Ba'athification law and establishment of a higher national commission for accountability and justice which ostensibly paves the way for former Ba'athists to return to Iraq.

The leader of an al-Qaida umbrella group in Iraq warned Iran to stop supporting Shiites in Iraq, giving leaders in the neighboring country two months to severe ties or they would face a "severe war."

UNESCO has pledged to help rebuild a revered Shi'ite shrine in the Iraqi city of Samarra, which was badly damaged in two separate attacks, one in February 2006 and the other earlier this month.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has stressed that the U.S. commitment to Iraq is long-term, but that military support is not open-ended. Gates was speaking in Baghdad Monday after meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki about the country's security situation.

Officials in Pakistan say the military has imposed a curfew in a remote northern town where sectarian clashes left eight people dead and at least 45 wounded.