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.