CAIRO, July 22 (AFP) - Visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi on Thursday rejected any dialogue with foreign fighters operating in Iraq and pledged to arrest them, the official Egyptian news agency Mena reported.
Allawi pointed the finger at "sabotage forces that secretly infiltrated Iraq and are conducting operations" in the country.
"Our government is not prepared to have a dialogue with these elements, who will be arrested and brought to justice under Iraqi law," Allawi said in a meeting with Egyptian newspaper editors.
Washington and Baghdad regularly accuse armed groups who have entered Iraq clandestinely of complicity in attacks in the country since the end of major combat in April 2003.
Earlier on Thursday Allawi met with Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, imam of Al-Azhar, the highest authority of Sunni Muslims, to seek cooperation to counter the ideas espoused by extremists, the Egyptian news agency Mena reported.
He asked that Al-Azhar send imams and preachers to Iraq "to consolidate Islam, for there is a force that is trying to destroy Iraq," Mena said, adding that Tantawi pledged his assistance.
"The role of Al-Azhar is to enlighten the Iraqi people, and that is why we need uleama (theologians) who show people the real faith," Allawi said.
Allawi, himself a secular Shiite, took office as interim prime minister on June 28.
Egypt is the second leg of his maiden tour of the Middle East focussing on security issues and debt forgiveness.