"Yesterday afternoon a number of tribal leaders entered Najaf," Mohammed Baqer Musawi al-Muhri told AFP.

He said the intervention by tribal leaders, who are mainly from the central Euphrates region, had put an end to the presence of roughly 50 armed men around the house of Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

But a religious leader of Baghdad's Shiite Muslim community dismissed reports of differences between Shiite clerics in Najaf, calling it a "manipulation" of the truth from abroad.

"There is no conflict between (Ayatollah Ali) Sistani and the religious leaders of Najaf," said Ali al-Shawki, imam of the Al-Rasul mosque, the largest in the primarily Shiite suburb Al-Sadr City, formerly known as Saddam City.

"The Iraqi people love him and he has no enemies in Najaf," he told AFP in an interview at his mosque.

And in Najaf itself, several thousand men demonstrated in the streets in favour of Shiite solidarity.

As the procession made its way through the narrow streets of the old town and past the holy site of Imam Ali's mausoleum, they chanted: "We are united."

The demonstration came in the light of inter-Shiite rivalries for religious and political supremacy in Najaf following the collapse of Sadda Hussein's regime.

Meanwhile, Ayatollah Sistani had been moved to an undisclosed location in Najaf for his safety, said Muhri.

"He (Sistani) will never leave Najaf, he has taken an oath to stay in Najaf" especially since the fall of the "tyrannical" Iraqi regime, Muhri said.

"We will demand adequate and proper protection for Sistani from the allied forces ... They are responsible for protecting him," said Muhri, echoing calls from other Shiite religious leaders.

But danger to Sistani was dramatically reduced by the tribal leaders' presence, he added.

Muhri said the armed men had gathered on Saturday and demanded Sistani leave Iraq within 48 hours.

He also said in a statement Sunday that the gunmen were from the same group that hacked to death prominent pro-Western Shiite cleric Sayyed Abdul Majid al-Khoei in Najaf on Thursday.

The killing came just a week after he returned to the city from London with the help of US forces who invaded Iraq.

Muhri had earlier said the gunmen had given Sheikh Ishak Fayyad, an Afghan-born Shiite religious scholar also based in Najaf, the same ultimatum to leave Iraq.

But a spokesman for the accused group denied the charge, which had fueled speculation about mounting rivalry among Shiite factions after the downfall of Saddam Hussein's regime.

"I categorically deny (the claim) that ... (Muqtada) Sadr delivered an ultimatum to Ayatollah Sistani" to leave Iraq, Riyad al-Nouri told the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite channel.

Muhri said the group threatening the clerics comprised followers of Muqtada al-Sadr, the 22-year-old son of Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, a senior Shiite authority assassinated in 1999.

His statement also charged the group was targeting another Shiite cleric in Najaf, Mohammad Said al-Hakim, threatening unspecified punishment unless he pledged allegiance to Muqtada al-Sadr.

Hakim is the nephew of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim, who heads the Tehran-based Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), the main Shiite Islamist group that opposed Saddam's regime.

In south Lebanon, a senior Shiite figure called on the Shiites of Iraq to protect Sistani.

"We call on our brothers in Iraq to oppose the threats against our 'sources of reference' such as Imam Ali Sistani and the sheikhs Mohammad Said al-Hakim and Ishak Fayyad," said Sheikh Afif Nabulsi.

The chief Shiite theologian in south Lebanon, Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, has also urged Iraq's Shiites "not to contribute to igniting civil war and inter-clan disputes" in their country.

The US "occupiers" were "trying to ignite religious and clan wars" by exploiting the Shiites, he charged.

SPACE.WIRE