an economic recovery which would depend heavily on oil exports
Explosions and gunfire echoed from the heart of Najaf, Iraq's holiest Shiite city 160km south of Baghdad. Smoke rose from near an ancient cemetery, scene of hand-to-hand combat in recent days, as US aircraft flew overhead. Allawi visited the shell-scarred city on Sunday and demanded Sadr's militia back down.
Sadr, a hero to Iraq's downtrodden Shiite youth, rejected the order to quit his hometown.-
"In the presence of occupation, there are no politics," he said. "You can't twin democracy and occupation, you can't twin freedom and occupation."
Iraq's political establishment was rocked on another front when a judge issued arrest warrants against former Pentagon darling Ahmed Chalabi and his nephew Salem Chalabi, the US-appointed lawyer supervising Saddam Hussein's trial.
Both dismissed the charges as politically motivated.
Zuhair Maliki, the US-appointed chief investigative judge of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, said an arrest warrant had been issued against Ahmad Chalabi in connection with counterfeiting money and against Salem on a murder charge.
Both men are outside the country.
Jordan Times 10.Aug.04
