Al-Sadr gives ok to end boycott

Iraqi cabinet ministers and legislators loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr were instructed to end their six-week boycott of the political process, a parliamentarian in the political block said today.

The decision to return could be related to a major security plan for Baghdad in which thousands of Iraqi and US troops are expected to do neighbourhood-to-neighbourhood search to clear the city of Sunni Muslim insurgents and local militias such as al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

The Mahdi Army has been blamed for much of the sectarian bloodshed over the past year.

"We might be subjected to an attack and we should try solve the problem politically. We should not give a chance for a military strike against us," said the legislator, speaking anonymously because the information was not yet public.

"The approval came last night from Najaf for the Sadrists to return to the political process, the government and parliament," said the legislator.

Al-Sadr lives in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad.

The lawmaker said the group's return was conditional, including demands that the government set up a committee to establish a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops and a second that would set a date by which Iraqi forces were to take control of security nationwide.

The demands would give the government one month to put such a measure before parliament.

Until the walkout, the al-Sadr faction was an integral part of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's governing coalition.

Six Cabinet ministers and 30 legislators who belong to the movement called the boycott after Maliki met with US President George Bush in Jordan in late November.