"Foreign troops must exit Iraq in the earliest", Hakim told journalists in Tehran, where his organisation is based, as the American and British forces were approaching Baghdad amidst strong resistance from Iraqi forces.

"The world does not approve of any colonialism and occupation and we will take peaceful measures in this respect at the beginning but we will use force later", he said, adding the "Iraqi nation will resist by any possible means" if US-led forces opt to stay in Iraq.

In an earlier interview with the Persian service of the BBC, Mr. Hakim, who is one of the six Iraqi leaders to govern the country after the fall of Saddam Hoseyn had called on the Iraqi people "not to take side" in the ongoing war.

"We had stressed from the start that the best way to solve the Iraqi crisis consisted in supporting and fostering the Iraqi people’s movement, allowing them to bring the changes themselves", he said.

"Since this war, which is led by the Americans, do not correspond to the wishes of the Iraqi people, which we think must play the leading role in their homeland and decide for their destiny, in our view, the best position is for the Iraqi people not to take side for Saddam or the Americans", he said.

Asked about the position of the al-Badr Brigades, an army estimated at between 25.000 to 50.000 men trained and equipped by the Iranians and controlled by the SAIRI, Ayatollah Hakim said the force had been ordered to stay neutral and do not enter the war.

His statement contradicted sharply earlier report that the Badr Brigades, which are based in a region south of Iran and near the Iraqi border, had made preparation to enter Iraq in order to pave the way for the British forces to occupy Basra, Iraq’s second largest city after Baghdad and a stronghold for the Iraqi Shi’a.

According to press reports, the Iranians allowed the Badr to cross the border after Ayatollah Hakim made the demand following his meeting, last week, with the British Ambassador to Iran.

"We have directed out forces to defend the Iraqi people and protect them against any danger. For this reason, the Badr decided to remain neutral", he said, adding that the Americans have not asked his men to cooperate in the war.

As Mr. Hakim was declaring his neutrality, a stance that run against that observed by other main Iraqi opposition leaders, there was contradicting reports about Basra citizen having rioted against Iraqi army.

Meanwhile, Iraqi forces in Basra were firing mortars on fellow Iraqis who were rebelling against them in Basra and British forces were firing artillery on these mortar positions.

A source from the SAIRI also said that people in Basra had risen up against forces loyal to President Saddam Hussein.

"We confirm an uprising is taking place in Basra, but we cannot give more details for the time being", said Mohamed Hadi Asadi, a spokesman for the organisation.

But in a statement broadcast by the Qatar-based independent "al Jazira" television, the Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Sa’id al-Sahhaf on Tuesday denied the reports of the uprising and a British military spokesman at allied field command headquarters in Doha, quoted by the French news agency AFP said he could not confirm reports of the uprising.

In another development, military sources said the American-British army has abandoned plans to bypass Basra and is instead now bent on taking it, because of continuing harassment of its supply lines by snipers and irregular Iraqi forces.

"Obviously there have been problems. When you get going in a battle like this, there will be ambushes, there will be irregular forces attacking, there will be difficulties in particular places such as there is now in Basra," Powell said in an interview with France 3 television news.