The political party loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has called for the dissolution of Iraq's parliament and new elections in another move that could escalate the country's growing sectarian crisis.
The anti-American Sadrist bloc is a partner in the Shia-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Bahaa al-Aaraji, the head of the Sadrists' bloc in parliament, said the elections are needed because of instability in the country and problems that threaten Iraq's sovereignty.
He said: "the political partners cannot find solutions for the problems that threaten to divide Iraq."
Iraq plunged into a new sectarian crisis last week, just days after the last American troops withdrew at the end of a nearly nine-year war.
The new political crisis has been accompanied by a new wave of attacks on the Iraqi capital by suspected Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaida.
Yesterday, a suicide bomber set off a car bomb at a checkpoint leading to the Interior Ministry, killing seven people and injuring 32, officials said.
Police and hospital officials said the bomber struck during morning rush hour, hitting one of many security barriers set up around the ministry's building.
Al-Maliki is in a political showdown with the country's top Sunni political figure, Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi.
It follows the government's move to issue an arrest warrant for al-Hashemi on allegations his bodyguards ran hit squads targeting government officials.
The prime minister threatened to form a government without al-Hashemi's Sunni-backed political party, Iraqiya, which is boycotting parliament and mulling whether to pull out of the ruling coalition.
Iraq was dominated by the minority Sunnis under Saddam Hussein until the U.S.-led war that began in 2003 ousted him.
Majority Shiites have dominated the government ever since, though Americans pushed hard for the inclusion of Sunnis with a meaningful role in the current governing coalition.
Bitter sectarian rivalries played out in 2006-2007 in violence that took Iraq to the brink of civil war and the latest tensions have raised fears of a resurgence of Shiite-Sunni violence.
