Sadr followers threaten to pull out of Iraqi govt

BAGHDAD, Nov 24 (Reuters) Radical anti-U S Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's political bloc, a key player in Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government, threatened on Friday to withdraw from the cabinet and parliament if Maliki met U S President George W Bush as planned in Jordan next week.

''We asked Maliki to cancel his planned meeting with Bush because there is no reason to meet with the criminal who is behind terrorism in Iraq,'' Faleh Hasan Shanshal, a senior official in Sadr's movement, told Reuters.

''We will suspend our membership of the cabinet and parliament if he goes ahead,'' he said.

REUTERS DKA HT1740