BAGHDAD, Sept 18: Iraqi Shia leaders urged Sunnis on Sunday to take a tough stand against radical militants in the face of al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s declaration of a war against Shias. Popular Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr led the calls for resistance to Zarqawi’s militant Sunni networks, which have carried out the most spectacular suicide bombings in Iraq since a US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Sadr spokesman Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji said the influential Sunni Muslim Clerics Association should take more decisive action against those he said were trying to trigger civil war between Shias and Sunnis.

More than 200 people have been killed in bombings and shootings in and near Baghdad this week, including at least 114 in a single suicide bomb on Wednesday that targeted a crowd of day labourers waiting to be hired in a Shia district.

Sunni Arabs make up about 20 per cent of Iraq’s 26 million population and Shia Arabs around 60 per cent. Kurds, who are predominantly Sunni, make up about 15 to 20 per cent and the remainder is Christian or from other smaller sects.

“We want them to issue a fatwa forbidding Muslims from joining these groups that deem others infidels,” he said. “This will be crucial in ending terrorism.”

Zarqawi said his declaration of war on Shias was in response to an offensive mounted by US and Iraqi forces against insurgents in the town of Tal Afar near the Syrian border, according to an Internet audio tape on Wednesday.

“Al Qaeda Organisation in Iraq ... has declared war against Shias in all of Iraq,” said the voice on the audio tape, sounding like that on previous recordings attributed to Zarqawi. No immediate verification was available.

The calls for moderation by Sadr, who has gained support from Sunnis by staging two uprisings against US occupation troops, could provide some relief for the government, which has watched the firebrand cleric forge ties with Sunni groups.

“The Sunni position is not clear. Why do they please him? People have to fear God alone and not Zarqawi. The resistance they talk about has died!,” said Mahmoud al-Sudani, a Sadr aide.

“How many Americans have they killed and how many Iraqis? It’s all about the seat of power, it is now apparent it has nothing to do with occupation,” said al-Sudani.

Sheikh Mu’ayyad al-Aadhami, a member of the Muslim Clerics Association, said “we are not with Zarqawi” and the group issued a statement urging the Al Qaeda leader in Iraq to retract his statement.

But Shia leaders said they should take a harder line against the militant leader with a $25 million US bounty on his head.

Fears of civil war have grown in the run-up to an October 15 referendum on a disputed new constitution for Iraq that is backed by the Shia- and Kurdish-led government. Sunni politicians oppose the charter.

CHARTER APPROVED: Iraq’s parliament finally approved a draft constitution on Sunday, just four weeks before the text is put to a referendum, as violence persisted after one of the bloodiest weeks since the US invasion of 2003.