A push by the Cairo-based Arab League to gather Iraq's divided factions for a national reconciliation conference has gained momentum, after Iraq's top Shia cleric gave his blessing to the initiative. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, whose views are influential among Iraq's Shia, told Amr Moussa, the head of the 22-state Arab League, that he supported the idea of a conference in Cairo next month, Moussa said on Saturday. "He gave his blessing to the conference," Moussa told reporters in Najaf after meeting al-Sistani in the holy city. Al-Sistani rarely speaks publicly and his office did not immediately confirm the content of their discussions. Moussa, secretary-general of the league, has held a flurry of talks with Iraqi leaders in recent days in an effort to ease sectarian tensions that have risen since January elections swept Shia and Kurds to power and isolated Arab Sunnis once dominant under Saddam Hussein. On Friday, some leading Arab Sunni leaders said they too had agreed to take part in the conference, to be held in the Egyptian capital on 15 November.