WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Dividing Iraq along religious and ethnic lines would play into the hands of al-Qaida, which has sought to stoke sectarian hatred in the country, experts say.

"Any plan for federalization along sectarian lines is playing al-Qaida's game," Reidar Visser, a researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs told a conference in Washington Wednesday.

Several U.S. policy-makers, most notably Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., have proposed a so-called soft partition of the country into a loose federation of a Shiite area in the south, a Kurdish homeland in the north and a Sunni zone in the west.

But Visser said "for hundreds of years Iraqis have dealt with sectarian violence through traditional mechanisms."

He said al-Qaida had "almost succeeded in destroying Iraqi society" by launching a cycle of murderously violent sectarian attacks.