IRAQ Cleric calls for an end to fighting

A move to politics for al-Sadr would boost the U.S.-backed government.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for his followers across Iraq to end fighting against U.S. and Iraqi forces and is considering joining the political process, an al-Sadr aide said today.
Meanwhile, Iraqi oil exports came to a halt after a rash of insurgent attacks on the country's petroleum infrastructure, the country's main source of income, senior oil company officials said.
Oil prices edged higher in advance of the opening of trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. October contracts for light crude were up 26 cents at $43.44 a barrel. But that was well below peaks of over $48 a barrel in mid-August.
Fighting continues
The announcement by al-Sadr came as his aides were trying to negotiate an end to fighting in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City and in the southern city of Basra, where clashes have continued even after a peace deal was reached in Najaf, the holy city where al-Sadr militiamen battled U.S. and Iraqi forces for three weeks.
Al-Sadr "has called for a halting of all military operations in Iraq, and we are studying the idea of joining the political process," said Naim al-Kaabi, an aide in Baghdad.
The announcement could provide a major boost to the government of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Al-Sadr has fiercely opposed the continued U.S. presence in Iraq and has denounced Allawi's government as dependent on the Americans -- but if he decides to join politics, it would suggest al-Sadr's acceptance of the U.S.-backed political process due to lead to elections in January.
Army still together
Allawi has also demanded al-Sadr disband his Mahdi army militia, but the aides did not say the cleric was considering doing so. The militia has emerged intact from the weeks of fighting with U.S. forces, and al-Sadr has gained popularity among some sectors of Shiites, particularly the poor.
"This latest initiative shows that we want stability and security in this country by ending all confrontation in all parts of Iraq," said Sheik Raed al-Khadami, al-Sadr's spokesman in Baghdad. "Al-Sadr's office in Najaf will call within the next two days to join the political process."
Al-Sadr visited the Imam Ali Shrine in the city of Najaf for the first time since his militia left the holy site Friday after weeks of using it as a stronghold and refuge during the fighting with the Americans.
Al-Sadr asked religious authorities for permission to enter the shrine and made a brief visit today, according to the office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric.
Al-Kaabi, a member of al-Sadr's negotiating team in Baghdad, said he hoped the government and the militia would reach agreement today to end the violence in Sadr City. Mahdi army militiamen and U.S. troops battled in the mainly Shiite east Baghdad district on Saturday in fighting that killed 10 people.
Uprisings by al-Sadr's fighters this month and in April increased the security problems faced by Allawi's government, on top of the Sunni Muslim-led insurgency that has plagued Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein more than a year ago.
Attacks on pipelines
Opposition fighters have been attacking oil pipelines in both the north and the south of the country for months. Late Sunday, oil ceased flowing from southern pipelines -- which account for 90 percent of Iraq's exports.
Two senior officials of the South Oil Co., speaking today on condition of anonymity, said the lines were not likely to resume operations for at least a week.
Iraq's other export avenue, a northern pipeline to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, also carried no oil today, according to an oil official in Ceyhan.
Allawi condemned the pipeline attacks, saying they were making ordinary Iraqis suffer.
"This is causing a great loss for the Iraqi people in terms of revenues, which could be used in the reconstruction of the country and to pay the people and get the economy back on track again," Allawi said in an interview with CNN aired today.
A halt in southern oil exports costs Iraq about $60 million a day in lost income at current global crude prices, said Walid Khadduri, an oil expert who is chief editor of the Cyprus-based Middle East Economic Survey.
The latest strikes, which hit five pipelines linked to the southern Rumeila oil fields on Sunday, immediately shut down the Zubayr 1 pumping station, forcing officials to use reserves from storage tanks to keep exports flowing for several hours. The reserves ran out late Sunday, the South Oil Co. official said.
Before the attack, Iraq's exports from the south were about 600,000 barrels a day -- a third the normal average of 1.8 million barrels a day due to a separate string of attacks early last week. The pipelines were still ablaze today, the official said.
Saboteurs last brought southern oil exports to a halt in June.