BAGHDAD (AFP) -- Iraq's beleaguered government accused the country's largest Sunni political bloc, which has withdrawn from the ruling coalition, of stalling moves towards national reconciliation.

In a reaction likely to further poison relations with the Sunni ministers boycotting Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's cabinet, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh issued a statement rejecting the bloc's complaints. Recently, the National Concord Front withdrew its six Sunni ministers from Maliki's Shiite-led government and threatened to take further action if various political demands were not met within a week. ""The Concord Front's statement and its positions -- including positions it has threatened to take -- have created several obstacles,"" Dabbagh said in a statement outlining the government's response to the protest. ""These are part and parcel with the Front's intention, from the beginning, to impede the political process,"" he added. Dabbagh's intervention underlined the deep rifts in government days before parliament is to recess for a month-long holiday, having not yet passed any of the benchmark reconciliation bills demanded by Washington. ""There were a host of demands submitted by the Front to the government, including a suspension of raids and arrests,"" Salim Abdullah, an MP and spokesman for the Sunni bloc, told AFP. The Front also demanded the government do more to rein in the country's powerful Shiite militias, many of which are allied to political parties, charges that Dabbagh dismissed. ""The Front knows that Iraqi government did not bring militias into the armed forces, but battled them and dismissed more than 14,000 suspected militiamen from the interior ministry,"" he said. Dabbagh blamed the bloc for stalling progress on key initiatives by boycotting parliament for more than a month after one of its members, parliamentary speaker Mahmud Mashhadani, was removed from his post. The Front's 44 members returned to the 275-member assembly on July 19 after their speaker was reinstated. The Front ""accused the government of failing to pass important laws that will bring prosperity and political stability to the country, pretending to be ignorant of the fact that legislating is the job of parliament,"" Dabbagh said. Its ministers first left the government after an arrest warrant was issued in June against culture minister Asaad Kamal al-Hashemi. He is accused of plotting to kill fellow Sunni MP Mithal Alussi in an ambush in February 2005. Alussi escaped the assault in Baghdad but his two sons were killed. The bloc's return to Parliament was seen as a positive step towards passing a range of legislation -- including a controversial oil law -- aimed at national reconciliation. But with parliament set to go on summer holiday from August 1, it seems increasingly unlikely that Maliki's Shiite-led coalition government will be able to meet any of the crucial political benchmarks set by Washington