There were conflicting reports on whether al-Maliki ordered the blockades lifted with or without prior consultation with American military officials in Baghdad.

State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said the decision was reached jointly at a meeting Tuesday among al-Maliki, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

They agreed to make adjustments in the checkpoints because of problems with traffic and pedestrian flows in the area, the spokesman said. He said Casey ordered the actions after the meeting.

A senior American diplomat said al-Maliki issued the order after the meeting "to address the problems that resulted with the flow of traffic and the disruption of essential daily activity for the average citizens of Baghdad. This was a joint decision." The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity.

Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Qassim al-Moussawi said the US military was consulted, but only after al-Maliki made the decision at a meeting Tuesday with his ministers of defense and interior and the national security adviser.

Al-Suneid said the prime minister acted without checking first with the Americans because the blockades had "backfired and made the security situation in Baghdad worse. It is not important that such decisions always be made jointly."

US troops have increased their presence on Baghdad streets as part of a 3-month-old security crackdown, but they had rarely set up checkpoints in the city until the US soldier was abducted a week ago in the Karradah district in central Baghdad. American forces sealed the neighborhood October 23 and closed Sadr City two days later, apparently believing the missing man was being held there. US forces lifted the blockades in both areas Tuesday.

Al-Maliki's order came just hours after al-Sadr announced a campaign of civil disobedience in Sadr City, a district of 2.5 million people in the northeast corner of Baghdad. Armed men forced shops to close, hustled children out of schools and blocked residents from going to jobs in other parts of the capital.

As soon as news broke that the security cordon was lifted, al-Sadr supporters declared it a victory for their leader.

"If they had not lifted the siege, our strike would have spread to the rest of Baghdad tomorrow and the whole of Iraq the next day," said Jalil Nouri, a senior al-Sadr aide.

In issuing the order to lift the blockade, the prime minister said US-manned checkpoints should not be established in Baghdad except during curfew hours from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. He also said U.S. and Iraq forces would not give up on trying to calm the capital.

"Joint efforts continue to pursue terrorists and outlaws who expose the lives of citizens to killings, abductions and explosions," said the statement, issued in al-Maliki's name in his capacity both as prime minister and commander of the Iraqi armed forces.

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