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BAGHDAD (AFP) — The Iraqi parliament on Saturday voted for the return of six Sunni ministers to the cabinet of Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, giving a fresh boost to the country's reconciliation programme.

Parliament also voted in four independent candidates as ministers to replace those from the political bloc of radical Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, which has boycotted the government since last year.

The six ministers representing the country's main Sunni bloc the National Concord Front include Rafie al-Issawi, who was voted in as the Sunni deputy prime minister to Maliki, an AFP correspondent present in parliament said.

Issawi was minister of state for foreign affairs between 2005 and 2007.

Sunnis will also hold five other posts -- the ministers for higher education, culture and communications, and 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 return of the Sunnis to the cabinet is seen as a move that will boost the country's reconciliation programme.

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 also been insisting that the Iraqi security forces release many Sunni prisoners the National Concord Front believed had been unjustifiably detained.

In addition to the release of prisoners, the front wanted a general amnesty and 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.

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 the sectarian conflict erupted in 2006.

In March this year Maliki launched a series of crackdowns against Shiite militiamen starting in the southern oil city of Basra. The Sadr bloc's Baghdad bastion of Sady City soon followed, and the focus is now on the southern province of Maysan.

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