WASHINGTON, July 26: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed on Wednesday that his country will remain resolute in the face of violent sectarianism ripping apart his country, calling Iraq the ‘front line’ in the ‘war against terror’.

The Iraqi leader cast the ongoing sectarian violence raging across his country as an internecine religious battle.

“This is a battle between two Islams, for which a person’s liberty and rights constitute essential cornerstones, and terrorism, which wraps itself in a fake Islamic cloak,” he said in an address to a joint session of the US Congress.

“Iraq is the front line in this struggle, and history will prove that the sacrifices of Iraqis for freedom will not be in vain,” he said.

“It is because of this spirit and desire to be free that Iraq has taken the opportunity you gave us and we chose democracy,” Mr Maliki said.

“We faced tyranny and oppression under the former regime, and we now face a different kind of terror. We did not bow then, and we will not bow now,” he vowed.

Mr Maliki has faced growing doubts among some lawmakers about his leadership.

The Iraqi leader came in for sustained congressional criticism on Tuesday over his recent remarks regarding Israel’s bombing raids in Lebanon.

After Mr Maliki condemned the Israel attack on Lebanon, lawmakers called for a ‘clarification’ from the Iraqi leader before he speaks to Congress.

“Absent an apology by the prime minister, we urge you to cancel the address,” some 20 House Democrats wrote in a letter to Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert earlier this week.

Mr Maliki did not answer his critics in his Congress address however, instead expressing gratitude for the continued US military presence in Iraq.

“Thank you for your continued resolve in helping us fight the terrorists plaguing Iraq, which is a struggle to defend our nascent democracy and our people, who aspire to liberty, democracy, human rights and the rule of law,” he told lawmakers and dignitaries assembled in the House of Representatives chamber.

His words seemed generally to be warmly received, and there was little evidence of threatened cold shoulder, with just a handful of lawmakers deciding to boycott the speech.

Some who attended however said they were disappointed that he did not distance himself from his earlier anti-Israel remarks.

“Frankly I was underwhelmed,” Democratic Representative Eliot Engle said on the House floor after Mr Maliki’s speech.

After meeting President George Bush on Tuesday, Mr Maliki had a meeting early on Wednesday with Democratic and Republican leaders from both the House and the Senate.

He accompanied the US president later in the day on a lunch-time visit with military families in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

To the large and growing number of lawmakers who have called for an early withdrawal of US troops, Mr Maliki said that the futures of both countries were inextricably linked.

“The fate of our country and yours is tied. Should democracy be allowed to fail in Iraq and terror permitted to triumph, then the war on terror will never be won elsewhere,” he said.

“Iraq and America both need each other to defeat the terror engulfing the free world. In partnership, we will be triumphant, because we will never be slaves to terror, for God has made us free,” Mr Maliki said.

“Trust that Iraq will be the graveyard for terrorism and terrorists for the good of all humanity.”

The address was briefly interrupted by a female heckler, who was removed from the House chamber after calling for US troops to be brought home from Iraq.—AFP