KUWAIT, March 27: Iraq's top Shia leader may issue a fatwa declaring the June 30 US transfer of power to Iraqis illegal if an interim constitution article is not amended, an aide said in remarks published on Saturday.

"If article 61 of the interim constitution is not changed, Imam (Ayatollah Ali) al Sistani may issue a fatwa declaring illegitimate all those (Iraqis) to whom power is transferred in June," said Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al Mohri.

Ayatollah Sistani "may also order the Iraqi people to protest or carry out major popular demonstrations and sit-ins in all Iraqi cities", added Ayatollah Mohri.

The Kuwait-based aide to the revered leader did not elaborate on the changes to article 61 wanted by Ayatollah Sistani, who has been complaining that veto guarantees enshrined in the constitution could constrain the power of the Shias. He also says a proposed three-person presidential council, comprising a Shia, a Sunni and a Kurd, is a recipe for religious and ethnic squabbling.

Ayatollah Mohri's comments, made at Friday prayers in Kuwait, were carried by Saturday's newspapers.

The interim constitution and how to transfer power from US occupation forces to a sovereign Iraqi government has been a subject of intense debate among Shias.

The US-appointed Governing Council signed the interim constitution at the start of this month despite several delays and over the objections of Ayatollah Sistani. Washington has been pushing for progress on the constitution and the make-up of a new government in order to meet the June 30 deadline to hand over sovereignty.

Ayatollah Mohri also urged the United Nations and the Coalition Provisional Authority running Iraq not to disagree with Ayatollah Sistani, "or else there will be pandemonium in Iraq, and protests and chaos will be widespread".

Earlier this month, the ayatollah in a letter urged the United Nations not to endorse the interim constitution, raising a potentially grave obstacle to US plans to hand power to Iraqis.

"Imam Sistani has decided not to meet with United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi until after declaring illegitimate the interim Iraqi constitution which divides Iraq," Mohri said. -Reuters