Iraqi Shi'ite leaders head to Najaf to avert crisis

Nouri al-Maliki, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, Moqtada al-Sadr,
Harith al-Dhari and Massoud Barzani

BAGHDAD, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Leaders of Iraq's Shi'ite Alliance, acknowledging a looming government crisis, will go to the holy city of Najaf to meet top clerics they hope can help save their fractious coalition, officials said on Friday.

The Alliance officials said the boycott of fiery cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's supporters of government and parliament last month and sectarian attacks blamed on militias loyal to Sadr had put the Shi'ite-led government's future at risk.

The Sadrists, who have demanded a timetable for the withdrawal of the U.S.-led forces from Iraq, rejected reports they had already agreed to return to the fold.

"We haven't received any instructions to go back to the parliament or the government," said Nassar al-Rubaei, the head of the Sadrist bloc in parliament, though he did acknowledge that talks were in progress with other Shi'ite groups.

Najaf, Iraq's holiest city for the majority Shi'ites, is the seat of the country's most senior Shi'ite clerics, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani who eschews the overt political engagement of fellow ayatollahs in Iran but has nonetheless been at the heart of Iraqi politics since 2003.

It is also the home of the shrine of Imam Ali, whose death in the seventh century caused the great schism in Islam between Shi'ites and Sunnis.

The United Alliance, built around Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki's Dawa party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and Sadr's movement, was largely created to fight elections under Sistani's auspices.

Officials in the Alliance said top leaders would head to Najaf within two days to meet various religious leaders and seek their help in uniting the Shi'ite factions.

"We are worried about this situation now. We want to reach a complete deal on all the pending issues " said Haidar al-Ibadi from the Alliance. "There will be a total review of the Alliance and the government's situation," he said.

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