Secretary General of Muslim Scholars Association Harith al-Dari (R) talks with Adbul Hadial-Daraji, representative of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad, in Iraqi capital city of Baghdad Feb. 15.Twenty-eight Iraqi groups held a press conference here on Tuesday and announced a declaration in which the withdrawal of US troops from the country is one of the conditions for them to take part in Iraqi political process. (Xinhua Photo）

A meeting by 28 Iraqi groups, which boycotted January's historic elections, called for a date for US troops to leave Iraq if they are to take part in writing a new constitution.

The groups also called for differentiating the resistant force to the foreign occupiers from the terrorist acts against innocent Iraqis, and recognition of the people's right to resist" the occupation by foreign troops.

None of those present took part in the January 30 election mostly because they objected to a vote being held under what they call "foreign occupation".

The meeting involved the Sunni Committee of Muslim Scholars and a representative of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.