QALA CHWALAN,(Southern Kurdistan)-AP-Feb 6, 2005-- The Kurdish leader who hopes to become Iraq's next president pledged to try to bring the country's disaffected Sunni Arabs into the political process even though many of them stayed away from the polls in landmark elections.

Jalal Talabani, a Sunni nominated last week by Kurdish leaders to be their candidate for one of Iraq's two top posts, said he would urge Sunni Arabs to take part in drafting a constitution - one of the key tasks of the new government that will soon take office.

As president, Talabani said he could play a mediating role between Sunni Arabs and Shiite Muslims, who apparently scored a landslide victory in the Jan. 30 national elections.

"I expect when in Baghdad I will play a role for reconciliation and will try to bring Sunni Arabs into the process of democracy," Talabani told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday night at his headquarters in Qala Chwalan near Sulaimaniyah.

"We will try to convince them to participate in the committee responsible for the drafting of the constitution."

Talabani, who leads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, said he would put national priorities ahead of those of the northern autonomous region of Kurdistan if he was elected president, a largely ceremonial post.

In particular, he would work to bring security to the country, eradicate the insurgency and take steps toward a national reconciliation among Iraq's various ethnic and religious groups, which have suffered strained ties in the violent aftermath of Saddam Hussein's ouster.

The elections themselves have added to divisions.

Some Sunni political parties boycotted last week's voting for a National Assembly because of objections to holding elections under the shadow of foreign occupation. Turnout was low in Sunni areas after insurgents threatened violence on election day, raising concerns that the lack of a strong Sunni voice in the new government could further alienate the group.

Sunni Arabs enjoyed exclusive power for nearly a century here, until the fall of Saddam. Since then, they have formed the core of the insurgency.

Their religious rivals, the Shiites, are on the verge of reversing nearly a century of oppression. Shiites turned out in huge numbers to vote and their leaders are expected to dominate the new government.

Talabani rejected concerns that putting a Kurd at the helm of Iraq's presidency instead of a Sunni Arab would disrupt the delicate power balance between the country's two dominant groups.

Kurds, who are also mostly Sunni Muslims, are one of the country's main ethnic groups and deserve their share in any national government, Talabani said.

And if the Kurds get the presidency and the Shiites the premiership, a Sunni could be made speaker of parliament, the third top job, he said.

Talabani said Sunnis made "a historic mistake by not fighting against terrorism and not ridding their areas of terrorist activity."

"This terrorist activity prevented them from using their right to vote," he said. "They made the area unsafe."

Though Kurdish officials have said they will not accept anything less than one of the two top government posts, Talabani said the Kurds will not make a fuss if they do not get it.

"We're not going to revolt," he said.

But he added: "I think we have a good chance because many people from various parties and groups are supporting the Kurds to be president," including Shiites and Sunnis.

The president and two vice presidents will be chosen by the 275-seat National Assembly. The three-member presidential council will then choose a prime minister, who will have to be approved by the assembly.

The chamber and the new executive will serve for 11 months, after which new elections are to be held for a full-term government.

Talabani said he was not worried about a religious Shiite group backed by clerics coming to power.

"They don't want to dominate the country. They want to have their share and they want to respect the share of the Kurds, respect the share of the Turkomen and the Sunni Arabs," Talabani said.

He said his Kurdish rival, Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, suggested that Talabani hold Iraq's presidency while he became Kurdistan's president.

"He personally prefers that I be in Baghdad and he be in Kurdistan," Talabani said.

He said he had no fears that Barzani would try to establish control over the region in his absence from Kurdistan.

"We are on the same team, the same leadership," said Talabani, whose party fought a bloody civil war in the 1990s with the KDP.

"I will do nothing without conversation and cooperation and coordination with Mr. Barzani and the Kurdish leadership here. And they also will not do anything without speaking with us."