Baghdad ? Iraq’s prime minister and president will introduce legislation as early as today to let former members of Saddam Hussein’s ruling party – including those in the feared security and paramilitary forces – resume jobs in the government, Iraqi officials said Monday.

Long demanded by the U.S. to appease Iraq’s once-dominant Sunni Arab minority, the measure would set a three-month challenge period after which ex-Baath party loyalists would be immune from legal punishment for their actions during Saddam’s reign.

The draft law, which excludes former regime members already charged with or sought for crimes, also would grant state pensions to many Baathists, even if they were denied posts in the government or military.

The reconciliation measure is seen as an effort to short-circuit expected criticism of Iraq’s government at an Arab League summit this week. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is said to fear rising support among U.S.-allied Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan for an Iraqi national unity government led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a favorite of Washington.

The legislation is being sent to parliament under the names of al-Maliki, a Shiite, and President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd. Shiites and Kurds make up nearly 80 percent of Iraq’s population and both groups were severely oppressed by Saddam’s largely Sunni regime.

“We present the draft Law of Accountability and Justice to parliament to build an Iraq that is accessible to all Iraqis determined to build a new, democratic Iraq that is far from sectarianism, racism, tyranny, discrimination, exclusion and disenfranchisement,” al-Maliki and Talabani said in a joint statement released late Monday.

Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who left his post in Baghdad on Monday, issued a statement congratulating the prime minister and president for the draft law.

Khalilzad said it was important because it would allow many former party members “the opportunity to return to their jobs, provided they were not at the highest levels of the former regime and have not been involved in criminal activity.”

The joint statement from al-Maliki and Talibani said the measure had been put to al-Maliki’s Cabinet for approval but did not give details of the draft law or say when it would go to the legislature.

Iraqi officials, however, said the measure could reach the floor of the legislature as early as today. The officials agreed to discuss the draft only if not quoted by name because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

With both al-Maliki and Talabani behind the draft, the legislation’s chances of passing are seen as good, although some in the once-repressed Shiite and Kurd communities are likely to oppose it. Sunni Arab lawmakers are expected to back the measure since it benefits their group.

The proposed law would supersede post-Saddam Iraq’s de-Baathification program – under which senior members of the Baath party were ejected from government and military posts. That was done under an edict from L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. official who ran the country for about a year after the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam.

Many former Baathists have since been reinstated, especially teachers and some military officers, after the U.S. found it had gutted key ministries and the military with no replacement personnel among the Iraqi work force and educated elite.

Along with ousting Baathists, Bremer dissolved Iraq’s military and security organizations, putting tens of thousands of armed men out of work. Much of the Sunni Arab insurgency that has proven so deadly to U.S. troops is believed to have coalesced around the dismissed military men.