Iraq's Sadr expected to extend ceasefire

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Powerful Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtadaal-Sadr is widely expected to extend a ceasefire by his MehdiArmy militia on Friday, a decision Washington says is importantto maintain security gains.

U.S. officials say the ceasefire, in operation for the pastsix months, has helped to sharply reduce attacks on U.S. andIraqi troops as well as tit-for-tat sectarian violence in Iraq.

Two senior officials from Sadr's movement told Reuters onThursday he had issued a declaration calling for a six-monthextension of the ceasefire and that this would be read outduring Friday prayers at mosques affiliated with the cleric.

"The general idea is that there will be an extension," saidone of the officials, declining to be named. "(Sadr) hasdistributed sealed envelopes to the imams of the mosques...They cannot be opened before (Friday)."

Many Mehdi Army members and Sadrist political leaders wantto scrap the truce, saying it is being exploited by Iraqi andU.S. forces to arrest Sadrists, especially in southern Iraq,where rival Shi'ite factions are vying for dominance.

Sadr's spokesman Salah al-Ubaidi has said in the past thecleric would issue a statement by midnight on Saturday if hewas renewing the truce. Silence would mean it was over.

The U.S. military blamed the Mehdi Army for fuelling acycle of sectarian violence with Iraq's Sunni Arab minority in2006 and 2007 and at one time called the militia the greatestsingle threat to peace in the country.

U.S. military commanders say violence in Iraq has dropped60 percent since June 2007, owing to Sadr's ceasefire, 30,000extra U.S. soldiers and a number of Sunni Arab leaders turningagainst al Qaeda.

Sadr called the ceasefire after deadly clashes between hismilitia, Iraqi forces and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, arival Shi'ite faction, in the holy city of Kerbala.

Analysts say he decided on the truce to bring into lineelements in the militia, some of whom had become involved ingangsterism and organised crime.

While praising Sadr for the truce, the U.S. military haspursued what it calls rogue elements of the Mehdi Army. Itaccuses Iran of arming these groups, a charge Tehran denies.

On Thursday, more than 1,000 Sadr supporters gathered inBaghdad's Sadr City slum, a Mehdi Army stronghold, to mark thefourth anniversary of his uprising against U.S. forces in 2004.

They marched through the streets carrying empty coffins torepresent Mehdi army members killed in battles with U.S troops.

(Editing by Ralph Gowling)