ISTANBUL, Turkey – Iraq’s interior minister, Bayan Jabr, said yesterday that capturing insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is not important: Instead, the key to fighting his Al Qaeda movement is to cut off the flow of his recruits.

Mr. Jabr told the Associated Press in an exclusive interview that Mr. al-Zarqawi was weaker after a recent crackdown in Baghdad by 40,000 Iraqi and American troops. He said a new anti-insurgency operation would begin next week, targeting areas surrounding the capital.

Mr. Jabr also demanded that Iraq’s neighbors – especially Syria and Jordan – take stronger measures to stem the flow of militants and money for the insurgency from their territory into Iraq. He said he had pictures and addresses of insurgents in Syria.

“It is not important to capture or not capture al-Zarqawi,” Mr. Jabr said. “The problem is not to let al-Zarqawi get more followers.”

The leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Mr. al-Zarqawi has carried out some of the bloodiest attacks of the insurgency, including car bombings and the videotaped beheadings of foreigners.

But Mr. Jabr said Mr. al-Zarqawi “is weak now” after coalition forces forced him from Baghdad. “He needs more followers. He needs more fighters,” he said.

Mr. Jabr spoke as the interior ministers of Iraq’s neighbors gathered in a former Ottoman palace for a meeting on Iraqi border security. He said he would call on Jordan and Syria to do more to help fight the insurgency.

Insurgent leaders are in Syria, “and I have addresses and I have some pictures – pictures of these terrorists,” Mr. Jabr said.

Asked whether Syria has increased measures to stop the militants from crossing into Iraq, Jabr replied: “I can say no.”