Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Friday called for dialogue after thousands of the country's Sunnis held protests against his policies.
"It is better for us to talk to each other and agree at the table of brotherhood and amicability to end our problems and differences,"al-Maliki said in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets in the Sunni-majority province of Anbar following the Friday prayers to condemn what they said were attempts by al-Maliki to marginalize Sunni politicians.
Protests were also held in other Iraqi cities including Mosul in the north.
"Down with the regime," shouted the demonstrators, echoing a slogan chanted in popular revolts that eventually toppled dictators in some Arab countries last year.
Protests against al-Maliki erupted last week when police arrested bodyguards of the Sunni Finance Minister Rafie al-Issawi who condemned the act as allegedly ordered by the prime minister.
Al-Maliki denied any involvement, saying the bodyguards were arrested following an independent judicial inquiry based on the anti-terrorism law.
Al-Maliki's relations with Iraq's Sunnis soured last year when authorities issued an arrest warrant against the Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi on terrorism charges.
Al-Hashemi denied the accusation and fled to Turkey. An Iraqi court in September sentenced him in absentia to death.