"It is necessary for Muslims all over the world to come back to Allah and ask him to help us in a fierce battle against infidel followers who invaded our homeland," Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani said in the decree in the Shiite city of Najaf in southern Iraq.

"It is imperative for the Iraqi people to be united, preserve public order and Iraq's territorial integrity," said the statement.

Iraqi troops have been engaged in a fierce ground battle with the invading US-led forces near Najaf, 160 km south of the capital Baghdad.

Defying international opposition, the United States and Britain launched a war against Iraq last Thursday under the pretext of toppling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction.

Iraq has denounced the US and British invaders as "criminals" and "villains," while urging the international community to stop the aggression "unconditionally."

(Xinhua News Agency March 26, 2003)