Police said 35 bodies were recovered in the streets of the capital, bringing to more than 150 the number of people killed execution-style across the country in the past four days amid raging sectarian conflict between the newly empowered Shia majority and the ousted Sunni Arab elite.

Maliki called on some 1,700 academics and civil rights activists gathered for a conference in the capital to back his efforts to stem the fighting through a national reconciliation plan.

"We should keep aside our differences to build bridges and Iraq's civil society should work to implement a policy of concord," Maliki urged the audience in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone -- the seat of the Iraqi government and the US military headquarters.

He said the meeting was part of his national reconciliation plan aimed at restoring security and the only way to "defy terror."

"Reconciliation is the only thorough and sound way of thinking and offers a high sense of responsibility. He who has no such characteristics must keep away from the process."

Civil society groups, he added, held the "responsibility to end sectarianism and racism. They are responsible for spreading freedom and democracy".