Iraq gov't distances itself from warrant for cleric

BAGHDAD, Nov 17 (Reuters) Iraq's Shi'ite-led government sought to distance itself today from the issuing of an arrest warrant for the country's most prominent Sunni cleric after Sunni politicians warned it could fuel sectarian tension.

Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih said the warrant for Harith al-Dari was issued by the judiciary, not the government.

''There are some cases that are under investigation and it is up to the Iraqi judiciary to take the decisions,'' Salih said.

He told Arabiya television the government, which is struggling to contain a three-year-old Sunni Muslim insurgency and sectarian bloodshed, would call a meeting of Iraqi leaders within the coming days to discuss the security situation.

''There is a real struggle going on that is getting deeper.

It is not a sectarian struggle but a struggle between extremists and moderates. It is time for the moderates to come together.'' Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, a Shi'ite, had told state television in a dramatic announcement late yesterday that Dari, who is in Jordan, was wanted for terrorism.

''This is the government's policy against anyone who tries to foment division among Iraq's sects,'' he said.

Sunni politicians have warned that the warrant for the outspoken head of the Muslim Clerics Association, who has described attacks on US troops as ''legitimate resistance'', could hamper government efforts to reach out to the disaffected Sunni minority.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government is under growing pressure from Washington to show progress in stabilising the country to allow 140,000 US troops to begin pulling out.

US officials have repeatedly urged Maliki's government to reconcile with Sunnis to end the violence. The US State Department says Dari's association is believed to have ties to and influence over insurgent groups.

US diplomats had no comment today. ''This is an Iraqi issue and the Iraqi government will deal with it,'' a US official in Baghdad told Reuters.

''SECTARIAN SEDITION'' Dari stresses he does not back insurgents who target innocent civilians, a response to charges that he supports al Qaeda, which is accused of spectacular bomb attacks that have killed thousands of civilians.

''I do not bestow legitimacy on anyone who harms our people or works against the interests of Iraq ... I bestow legitimacy on the Iraqi resistance that resists the occupation,'' he told al Jazeera from Jordan today.

Dari said yesterday the arrest warrant was an attempt by the government to try to divert attention from this week's mass kidnapping at the Sunni-run Higher Education Ministry, which he said had been ordered by Bolani's ministry.

Dari, grey-bearded and normally wearing the traditional red -chequered headdress and robes of a tribal sheikh, said he had been expecting the arrest warrant for over a year.

In February the Muslim Clerics Association accused Interior Ministry forces of trying to arrest him at his Baghdad home. It said two of his nieces were wounded in an ensuing shootout.

Iraq's ethnic Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, who is a Sunni Muslim, said this week Dari promoted ''sectarian sedition'' with the support of Arab countries, which he did not name.

Government leaders were incensed this week by comments Dari made on television that they said defended al Qaeda violence.

REUTERS PDM KP2117