Iraq's prime minister raised the stakes in his showdown with followers of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, saying in an interview broadcast today they would be barred from elections unless their militia disbands.
The comments followed an offensive by government forces into the cleric's Baghdad stronghold, the Shia slum of Sadr City, in which heavy fighting returned to the capital after a week of relative calm when Sadr called his militiamen off the streets.
"A decision was taken ... that they no longer have a right to participate in the political process or take part in the upcoming elections unless they end the Mehdi Army," Mr Maliki said in an interview with CNN, according to a report posted on the US television network's web site.
Mr Maliki's threat to drive Sadr's millions of supporters out of the political process heightens tensions in a conflict that has divided Iraq's Shia majority and led to the worst fighting since extra US troops arrived last year.
Sadr's followers are due this year to participate for the first time in elections for powerful provincial government posts that control the southern half of the country - and are widely expected to oust less-popular Shi'ite parties that back Mr Maliki.
Sadr's followers said the authorities had no power to disband the Mehdi Army militia.
"No one can intervene in the Mehdi Army; only those who established it and the religious leaders," the spokesman for Sadr, Salah al-Ubaidi, said.
Five US soldiers were killed yesterday in the renewed fighting, including three killed and 31 wounded in strikes with mortars bombs or rockets that crashed across Baghdad.
One of those strikes killed two US soldiers and wounded 17 inside the heavily fortified Green Zone government and diplomatic compound, where personnel at the world's largest US embassy are now required to carry body armour and helmets.
Another strike unleashed a huge fire in the Jamila market, a vast wholesale bazaar that provides food for much of the eastern half of Baghdad.
The violence comes just days before a progress report to Congress by the top two US officials in Iraq, ambassador Ryan Crocker and military commander General David Petraeus.
Mr Maliki launched a crackdown on Sadr's Mehdi Army late last month, triggering uprisings across southern cities and Shi'ite parts of Baghdad.
Although the government made little headway in Basra, Sadr called his militia off the streets a week ago.
But US and Iraqi forces have continued to surround Sadr City.
Iraqi forces moved into southern parts of Sadr City on Sunday. Hospital sources said at least 25 people died and more than 90 were wounded in the fresh fighting.
In one incident US forces said helicopters fired at least two Hellfire missiles killing nine people.