Some leaders of Iraq’s Sunni Muslim minority have signalled they may work with the new prime minister, a move which could strengthen Baghdad’s hand.
The mainly Shia Muslim government is locked in a fight with Islamic State (IS), an extreme Sunni group leading an insurrection in the north.
Fighting has flared up in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, parts of which have been under militant control.
The EU has condemned IS “atrocities and abuses” against religious minorities.
In an emergency meeting of the 28 EU states in Brussels, the countries were left to decide individually whether they would arm Iraq’s Kurds, the main opponent of IS in the north.
IS-led violence has driven an estimated 1.2 million Iraqis from their homes.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s most influential Shia cleric, threw his weight behind the new Iraqi prime minister on Friday.
A group of leaders from restive Sunni provinces issued a joint statement addressed to new Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who took over from Nouri Maliki on Thursday.
They said they could join the new government if the security and civil administrations in their areas were given equal status to that of the central government.
But they demanded that the Iraqi authorities stop the bombardment of Sunni provinces and cities, and said that local people should be allowed to run Sunni provinces.
Calling for a reform of the Iraqi army, they asked for the release of political detainees, an end to executions and the withdrawal of militias from Sunni cities.
A source in Anbar province told the BBC’s Arabic Service that the statement had been written by a group of Sunni leaders from six provinces and had been approved by “revolutionary tribesmen and military councils”.
Separately, one of the most powerful Sunni tribal leaders, Ali Hatem Suleiman, said he was ready to work with the new prime minister, provided he protected the rights of the minority.
A decision on whether or not to fight IS would come later, he added.
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