The accord was cautiously welcomed by the White House, which faces demands to withdraw US troops and calls from lawmakers for Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to resign.

Leaders of Iraq's rival Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish sects squeezed out the agreement after lengthy talks on Sunday, but leading Sunni Arab politicians said it failed to meet all their demands.

The leaders agreed to ease restrictions on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party taking up government jobs, to hold provincial elections -- a key demand of Washington -- and to help security forces end the bloodshed, President Jalal Talabani's office said.

Maliki, a Shiite; Talabani, a Kurd; Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi; Shiite Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi and Massud Barzani, president of the autonomous northern Kurdish region, made a rare television appearance after making their reconciliation pledge.

But a leading member of the National Concord Front, the main Sunni Arab bloc, said it would continue to boycott Maliki's government until its demands are fulfilled.

"The Front will not return to the government unless all its demands are met," said Khalaf al-Alayan, a leading politician and lawmaker from the bloc which quit the government on August 1.

"The government is trying to show to the world that it is working, but it is a failure and has to go. It does not have credibility."

Alayan said Hashemi had joined the other four leaders in announcing the latest political move in his capacity as a "vice president and not as leader of the Front."

Even Omar Abdul Sattar, a leader of Hashemi's Iraqi Islamic Party, dismissed the agreement as stage-managed. "It was an irrelevant media production," Abdul Sattar told AFP.

Iraqi political leaders have in the past announced broadbrush agreements but have battled to implement them or hammer out specifics.

Kurdish lawmaker Mahmud Othman told AFP the agreement was an "important step" and hoped the decisions would be "implemented quickly and lead to more such steps."

The statement from Talabani's office said the five leaders had agreed to support a new bill to replace the four-year-old de-Baathification law and make it easier for former members of Saddam's Baath party to take up government or military jobs.

The return to public life of former Baathists who have no criminal records has been a strong demand of the Sunni bloc, but the so-called Reconciliation and Accountability Law has yet to be approved by parliament.

The statement said that the Iraqi leaders had also agreed to encourage the sharing of government jobs equally among all three communities.

"The leaders agreed to hold provincial elections and to continue dialogue over other disputed issues such as constitutional reforms and the oil law," it added.

Washington has insisted that provincial elections and passage of the oil law are among the cornerstones needed to achieve progress and reconciliation in Iraq.

The White House said the pledges from the Iraqi leaders were "an important symbol" of their readiness to work on behalf of all Iraqis.

They come two weeks before leading US officials in Iraq -- ambassador Ryan Crocker and coalition forces chief General David Petraeus -- present a keenly awaited report to the US Congress.

Since the boycott by the Sunni Arab bloc, a growing number of US politicians have spoken out against Maliki, with some like presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and Senator Carl Levin calling for him to be replaced.

An angry Maliki lashed out at the two politicians on Sunday, just hours before the latest reconciliation moves emerged.

"They talk about Iraq as if Iraq is their property," Maliki told reporters.

They "have not experienced in their political lives the kind of differences we have in Iraq. When they give their judgment, they have no knowledge of what reconciliation means."

Maliki meanwhile won an apology from French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner over similar calls he made in an interview with US magazine Newsweek for a new Iraqi premier.