The political group of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday threatened to pull out of Iraq's national unity government if Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has a scheduled meeting with US President George W. Bush in Jordan next week.

"We will withdraw from the government and parliament if the prime minister meets Bush in Jordan," a statement from the group said, adding that it would also withdraw if the security situation did not improve.

Bush and Maliki are due in Jordan on Wednesday for talks on the situation in Iraq.

The group, which has 30 MPs in the 275-member parliament, is a major supporter of Maliki's Shi'ite-led government and was key to his appointment as prime minister over the choices of other Shi'ite parties.

The group demanded that the government "specify the nature of its relations with the occupation forces," and once again demanded a timetable for the withdrawal of US-led troops from Iraq.

It said the Shi'ite bastion of Sadr City, the impoverished district where many Sadr followers are based, faces deadly insurgent attacks and repeated US raids.

"This is a sign of an alliance between Saddamists, takfiris (Sunni extremists) and the occupation forces," the statement said.

On Thursday, a wave of car bombs ripped through Sadr City, killing at least 202 people and wounding another 256 in the deadliest attack in Iraq since the war that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Earlier that day, US forces mounted an operation against a militia leader in the same neighborhood, resulting in four deaths.

The group also called on political leaders to refrain from making provocative speeches.

The US military has regularly charged that Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, whose thousands of members live in Sadr City, kill Sunni Arabs in the ongoing sectarian conflict engulfing Iraq.

Shi'ites, however, counter that they are being targeted by the Sunni insurgents.

In his Friday sermon in the southern town of Kufa, Sadr called upon top Sunni leader Hareth al-Dhari to issue a series of fatwas that would stop Sunni insurgents killing Shi'ites.

Dhari is currently out of Iraq and the government has initiated a criminal investigation against him for inciting sectarian violence.

"I will issue a statement condemning any arrest or assault against him (Dhari) if he issues a fatwa forbidding the killing of Shi'ites because they are Muslims," Sadr said.

He also urged Dhari to forbid Sunnis from "joining al-Qaida-like terorrist organizations because it kills Muslims, and also a fatwa to support rebuilding the two holy shrines in Samarra" in the north.

In February the golden mosque of Samarra was bombed by alleged al-Qaida militants, triggering the massive sectarian conflict across Iraq that has killed thousands of people.
 
Bush and Maliki, meanwhile, are expected to discuss new strategies for curbing the carnage in Iraq amid growing calls from newly victorious Democrats to withdraw US troops from the war-torn country.

Iraqi lawmakers are skeptical about the outcome of the meeting, however.

"I do not think anything major is going to come out from the meeting," said MP Mahmud Othman, a Kurd.

(China Daily November 27, 2006)