By Aseel Kami
Shi'ite Sadr's spokesman Salah al-Ubaidi said the ceasefire, which expires later this month and has been vital to cutting violence in Iraq, should continue to be observed until militia members are told it is over or has been renewed.
"Any member of the Mehdi Army who conducts violent acts during the ceasefire, the Sadr office declares they will no longer be part of the Mehdi Army," Sadr said in a statement read to Reuters by Ubaidi.
Attacks across Iraq have fallen by 60 percent since June 2007 after a series of security crackdowns. A return to hostilities could seriously jeopardise those gains.
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"The delay in the budget is harming everyone," Iraq's Shi'ite Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi told a news conference.
Taha al-Luhaiba of the Sunni Arab Accordance Front said a vote could take place on Sunday or Monday, but Muna Zalzah, a finance committee member from the Shi'ite Alliance, feared the budget might not be voted on for at least another week.
"Even if the parliament voted today, the budget will not be implemented until March. We have lost a lot of time," Abdul-Mahdi said.
Freeing prisoners has been one of the preconditions for the Accordance Front, the main Sunni Arab bloc, to return to cabinet after it quit last month, fracturing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led unity government.
Amid signs of growing restlessness, police said Mehdi Army fighters had clashed with Iraqi and U.S. soldiers early on Thursday in Sadr City, the sprawling Shi'ite slum in northeast Baghdad which is one of Sadr's power bases.
Sadr, who led two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004, ordered the Mehdi Army ceasefire so he could reorganise the splintered militia. Ubaidi has said Sadr is gauging the mood of senior figures before deciding whether to extend the truce.
U.S. commanders have said they are confident Sadr would extend the freeze, although U.S. and Iraqi forces continue to target "rogue" Mehdi Army units.
Paul Tait; Editing by Dominic Evans)
