Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nurial-Maliki on Saturday urged Sunni ministers of a major Sunni political bloc to end boycott his cabinet, over accusation of terrorism against a Sunni minister.

    "I call on my brothers, the leaders of the Iraqi Accordance Front, to cancel their decision of boycotting cabinet meetings and to work through the judicial process to solve this problem, "Maliki said in a statement.

    On Friday, the bloc which is a coalition of Sunni parties, suspended membership in the government after an arrest warrant was issued against minister of culture Asa'd al-Hashimi, one of the bloc's six ministers.

    Al-Hashimi's bodyguards are accused of killing two sons of MP Mithal al-Alousi two years ago, and an arrest warrant was subsequently issued against the minister.

    Maliki's statement said that Hashimi's case is a "purely judicial matter concerning the personal rights of Mithal al-Alousi. "I am sure that the front refuses government intervention in the judicial jurisdictions," he added.

    The Iraqi Accordance Front said in a statement Friday "we have asked all of our six ministers to boycott the government'smeetings until the Hashimi case ends."

    The suspension of membership is in protest of the arrest warrant, considered by the front as a political case not a judicial issue, said the bloc's statement, which has 44 seats in the Iraqi 275-seat parliament.

    The front said it will return to the government if the case against minister al-Hashimi was referred to a neutral committee, and when the government of prime minister Nuri al-Maliki stopped false accusations against the front.

    On Tuesday, Iraqi forces raided the house of Hashimi near the Green Zone and detained six of his bodyguards.

    Alousi had told Xinhua that Hashimi and two of his bodyguards have resorted Monday to a house of an official of the Iraqi Accordance Front inside the U.S. heavily guarded the Green Zone.