BAGHDAD, Dec. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraq's Shiite and Kurdish leaders said on Thursday that they agree in principle to enlarge the next government's cabinet to include representatives of other communities in a bid to push for a national unity government.

    "The Kurdish coalition and the Shiite alliance agree in principle on a government of national unity," Kurdish leader and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told reporters after a meeting with Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim in Dokhan, a mountain resort 400km north of Baghdad.

    However, Talabani specified that there would be some restrictions in the forming of an enlarged cabinet, saying, "the other parties must believe in certain principles," including "rejection of terrorism."

    Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Shiite Muslim alliance, visited the Kurdish capital Arbil on Wednesday to hold talks on forming a consensus government to soothe Sunni Arabs and secular parties who said the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections were rigged.

    After the Dec. 15 elections, disappointed Sunnis and secularists called for demonstrations to denounce alleged electoral fraud in the elections. Enditem