Baghdad - Tens of thousands of supporters of the militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have demonstrated on Saturday in Baghdad against the draft security deal being considered by the Iraqi and US legislatures.

Al-Sadr called for all Iraqis to reject the deal, known as the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), saying that it would only prolong the occupation of Iraq.

Al-Sadr's message was read by Sheikh Hadi al-Mahdawi in front of an estimated 50,000 protestors, who gathered in Baghdad with Iraqi flags chanting anti-US slogans.

Demonstrators chanted slogans such as "No No No to America!", "No No No to Israel" and "Occupiers out."

The cleric appealed to the Iraqi parliament not to adopt the bill.

"The Iraqi government has abandoned its responsibility before God and its people and left the responsibility to you. Signing this agreement will defame Iraq for years to come just like Camp David and Sykes-Picot and many other ominous treaties," al-Sadr said in the statement.

Al-Sadr added "If they tell you that the treaty will end the occupation it is a lie and the occupiers will remain here. If they tell you that the treaty will give you sovereignty they are liars."

"Do not betray the Iraqi citizens," he urged the lawmakers.

Opposition grew on Friday amongst Shiite clergy, concerned that the proposed deal did not defend the rights of the Iraqi state.

"Nearly one million people took part in the demonstration against foreign presence in Iraq and the long-term security agreement between Iraq and the United States," a spokesman for al-Sadr told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency

Other minorities and sects including Sunnis, Kurds and Christians participated in the demonstration, Abu Zahra added.

It remains unclear if there is enough support in the Iraqi legislature to pass the agreement, as Sunni religious figures and minorities have also issued judgements against it.

SOFA would extend the mandate of US forces in Iraq beyond the end of this year, when the previous UN authorization runs out. Under the agreement troops would withdraw by 2011. The US has about 144,000 of the 152,000 foreign troops currently in Iraq.

More controversial elements of the agreement include how long the US military can hold prisoners without charging them, whether the Iraqi government should be informed in advance of operations, and whether and under what conditions US soldiers should be subject to US or Iraqi criminal law.

Meanwhile, Iraqi police killed a female suicide bomber as she detonated her explosive vest near a checkpoint in the northern province of Salahaddin, a police source said Saturday.

In Hillah, some 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, unknown gunmen in a car shot a leader of the Awakening Councils and then escaped. Abdel Hadi Ali Mekky was in his car when the attackers approached him with their car and shot him, police told VOI.

Awakening Councils or sons of Iraq are tribal police who have cooperated with the US to fight the al-Qaeda organization in Iraq.

Separately, a woman was killed and four of her family were wounded when a bomb went off in front of her house in al-Saeda district in Baquba city, a security source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Another civilian was killed by unidentified gunmen in front of a shop in al-Moalimeen district west of Baquba. Baquba is located some 60 kilometres north of Baghdad.

In further violence, an Iraqi soldier was killed and another two soldiers were wounded in a blast at their army checkpoint in the Amariya district west of Baghdad, an army source told VOI.

Also, three policemen were wounded by a blast that struck their patrol in the Sunni Iraqi province of Anbar. The injured were moved to a near by hospital and Iraqi police cordoned-off the area in search for the attackers, VOI reported. (dpa)