BAGHDAD, Feb. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- The U.S. ambassador to Iraq on Monday called for a new Iraqi government free from sectarianism,threatening to withhold investment if the government institutions were run by sectarians.

    Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, made the comments hours before a high-level meeting between former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi, who is a secular Shiite, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Iraq's top political Shiite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim.

    "The sectarian and ethnic conflict is the fundamental problem in Iraq," he said.

    "Iraq is going through a period of state and nation building. The insurgency and the terror that is part of the scene is a reflection of this conflict," Khalilzad added.

    Khalilzad also said that the U.S. would stop large amount of investments in Iraq's reconstruction if the coming new Iraqi government was run by sectarians.

    "We are not going to invest the resources of the American people and build forces that are run by people who are sectarian,"said the U.S. ambassador.

    The Shiite bloc managed to remain the largest bloc in the new Iraqi parliament and is expected to continue dominance in the next government.

    Washington has been pressing the Shiites to hand key ministries,such as interior and defense, to people "who are nonsectarian,broadly acceptable and who are not tied to militias" in a bid to head off rising sectarian tensions. Enditem