BAGHDAD: The formation of a truly inclusive government is required to overcome the threat of Iraq's breakup along ethnic and sectarian lines, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in Baghdad today.

"Iraq is facing an existential threat but it can be overcome by the formation of a thoroughly inclusive government," he said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

"It must be a government in which all Iraqis feel represented," said Ban, who has been touring the region mainly in a bid to quell the bloodshed in Gaza and whose Baghdad stop was not initially scheduled.

His visit came hours after a breakthrough in what has been a protracted and acrimonious process to renew Iraq's leadership.

Maliki's coalition won April polls comfortably but the Shiite premier has faced growing domestic and foreign pressure to step aside since a jihadist-led onslaught sparked Iraq's worst crisis in years and threatened to redraw the map of the Middle East.

Iraq's Kurds traditionally get the post of president and earlier today agreed on a common candidate, a move which could pave the way for a deal on the much more powerful position of prime minister, which goes to a Shiite Arab.

AFP