Iraqi leaders yesterday stepped up efforts to persuade minority Muslim sects to return into the political process as the final vote count from the country's historic election got under way. Iraq reopened its frontiers and Baghdad airport as it eased a security clampdown imposed for the first free election in the country in more than 50 years. There has been no major attack since Sunday's vote. But Al Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al Zarqawi vowed to pursue his war against the Iraqi government and US leaders are resisting pressure to set a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops. Interim President Ghazi al Yawar, a Sunni, said all parties — except those tainted by the deadly insurgency that has gripped Iraq since Saddam Hussein's overthrow in April 2003 — should take part in negotiations after the election."We must all become involved in a dialogue and reconciliation... with everyone. All those who were not involved in violence must be part of the political process," Yawar told a press conference. "There were no winners or losers" in the election he said, calling it "a victory for Iraq." The election is likely to see Shiites take power in Iraq for the first time in history after decades of oppression under Saddam's regime. The final count of ballots started amid stringent security in Baghdad although no announcement of the final result is expected for at least a week. But party officials said negotiations between rival parties over the make-up of the new government had already started. The president called on the Iraqi Islamic Party, a mainstream religious faction which ordered supporters to boycott the poll, to join the drawing up of a new constitution. Yawar also predicted that a member of the Shiite majority community would have the key post of prime minister, with a Sunni president and a Kurdish head of the national assembly. Despite the absence of major attacks after the election, Zarqawi's extremist group vowed to maintain his holy war, in a statement on a website. Fighters from his group "will press on with their war until the banner of Islam flies over Iraq," according to the statement, which could not be authenticated.