BAGHDAD, Iraq — Prime Minister al-Maliki said yesterday that his government will send envoys to neighboring countries to pave the way for a regional conference on ending the rampant violence in Iraq.

The Shiite leader appeared to back down from previous opposition to handing neighboring nations a say in Iraqi affairs but stressed that the conference would be held in Iraq and that while his government would welcome help, it would not tolerate interference.

“After the political climate is cleared, we will call for the convening of a regional conference in which these countries that are keen on the stability and security of Iraq will participate,” he said.

In new bloodshed, suspected insurgents set off a car bomb to stop a minibus carrying Shiite government employees in Baghdad, then shot and killed 15 of them, the government said. In another attack in the capital yesterday, two car bombs exploded in a commercial district, killing 15 other Iraqis, police said.

The American command said an insurgent attack on an American military patrol in Baghdad on Monday killed one soldier and wounded five. Another American serviceman died in southern Iraq on Monday in an accident involving his vehicle.

Mr. Maliki’s statement came a day before the Iraq Study Group, headed by a former secretary of state, James Baker, and a former House lawmaker, Lee Hamilton, a Democrat of Indiana, is to release recommendations on changing American strategy in Iraq. Those are expected to include a suggestion to engage Iraq’s neighboring nations, including American adversaries Iran and Syria, in the search for an end to the violence in Iraq. It also is expected to recommend gradually changing the mission of American troops from combat to training and supporting Iraqi units, with a goal of withdrawing the Americans by early 2008.