Iraq's Sadr says Arab states must help for own sake

BAGHDAD, June 8 (Reuters) Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose feared Mehdi Army militia is accused of receiving arms and training from Iran, called on Arab states to help end Iraq's suffering.

In his first interview since reappearing in public two weeks ago, Sadr rejected outside interference in Iraq, including from Iran, repeated his description of US forces as ''occupiers'' and blamed Washington for Iraq's violence and political instability.

In a rare interview aired late yesterday on Iraq's al-Iraqiya television, Sadr called on Arab states to cooperate and to help ''put an end to the suffering of Iraqis''.

''We are not in need of anyone. The Arab states are in need of Iraq because security in Iraq is a part of their security,'' the charismatic young cleric said.

''Now Iraq is a battlefield to defend the Arabs and the Muslims.

What we are seeing now from the blood-letting will happen in their countries later,'' Sadr said.

Washington has long accused Iran of training Shi'ite militias like the Mehdi Army and supplying them with weapons, including increasingly sophisticated roadside bombs that are the biggest killers of US troops in Iraq.

Tehran rejects the charges, accusing Washington of fomenting instability in the region.

Sadr disappeared from public view shortly before a US-led security crackdown began in mid-February but re-emerged in the holy Shi'ite city of Kufa on May 25.

In a sermon that day he sought to paint himself as a leader for all Iraqis who was prepared to defend the interests of Sunni Muslims, dominant under Saddam Hussein, and Christians as well as majority Shi'ites.

He continued in a similar vein in yesterday's interview, saying Iraqis must settle their own affairs and rejecting any form of outside interference.

''I completely reject any involvement in Iraq if it is from the Iranian side, or any other sides, and I say that the situation in Iraq is for Iraqis,'' Sadr said.

The US military says Sadr fled to Iran in January, but Sadr's aides insist he never left Iraq.

Sadr said nothing about where he had been while he was out of public view other than to describe it as a ''successful disappearance''.

His reappareance came at a crucial time for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose government is under pressure from Washington to reach political targets meant to promote national reconciliation while the US-led security crackdown tries to avert all-out sectarian civil war.

Six Sadrist ministers withdrew from Maliki's weak and divided government in April in protest at Maliki's refusal to set a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops.

REUTERS JK PM0458