Iraqi prime minister Adel Abdul Mahdi to resign - statement

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said on Friday he would present his resignation to parliament so lawmakers could choose a new government, according to a statement from his office. Abdul Mahdi's decision came in response to a call for a change of leadership on Friday by Iraq's top Shi'ite Muslim cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the statement said.

"In response to this call, and in order to facilitate it as quickly as possible, I will present to parliament a demand (to accept) my resignation from the leadership of the current government," said the statement, signed by Abdul Mahdi.

Iraq's top Shi'ite Muslim cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on Friday condemned attacks on protesters and urged lawmakers to reconsider their support for the government. The government "appears to have been unable to deal with the events of the past two months ... parliament, from which the current government emerged, must reconsider its choices and do what's in the interest of Iraq," a representative of Sistani said in a televised sermon. Sistani said attacks on peaceful protesters were "forbidden" but also urged demonstrators to reject violence.

The unrest is Iraq's biggest crisis for years. It pits protesters from Shi'ite heartlands in Baghdad and the south against a corrupt Shi'ite-dominated ruling elite seen as pawns of Iran.

Iraq's current political class is drawn mainly from powerful Shi'ite politicians, clerics and paramilitary leaders including many who lived in exile before a U.S.-led invasion overthrew Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.