Fadlallah’s edict came in response to questions by some Shia members of Iraq’s parliament who asked the scholar to give his opinion about the proposed security pact.

The scholar was born in the Iraqi Shia holy city of Najaf and wields some influence among Iraq’s Shia majority. He is one of the founders of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s Dawa Party. “No authority, establishment or an official or non-official organisation has the legitimacy to impose occupation on its people, legitimise it or extend its stay in Iraq,” Fadlallah said in the edict released by his office.

The agreement provides for American troops to leave Baghdad and other Iraqi cities by the end of June and fully withdraw from the country by the end of 2011 unless the government asks them to stay.

It would also give Iraq limited authority to prosecute US soldiers and contractors for crimes committed off-base and off-duty, limit US authority to search homes and detain people and give Iraqis more say in the conduct of American military operations.

Fadlallah said that any pact should call for an “unconditional withdrawal of occupation forces from Iraq,” and put a “fixed and imminent timetable for a complete American withdrawal from Iraq.”

He added that no US bases or centres should be allowed to stay adding that any American presence would have to be based on normal diplomatic missions.

Fadlallah added that the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq should not be linked to the improvement of the security situation in the country because the Americans can cause security problems in order to extend the stay of their forces. -AP