The city's military command announced in a statement that cars and motorcycles would not be permitted on the roads from midnight (Thursday at 2100 GMT) until further notice, and only pedestrians would be allowed.

Maliki's remarks were markedly stronger than warnings issued by Iraqi security officials, who have claimed that the protests would be infiltrated by insurgents bent on wreaking havoc.

"I call upon you... not to participate in tomorrow's demonstration," Maliki said in Baghdad on Thursday.

He insisted he was not preventing protesters from taking part in the rally, but cited security concerns and claimed that the protest's organisers were tied to the regime of ex-dictator Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda insurgents.

"You can hold these demonstrations at any time or place you want, except for the place and time of a demonstration which Saddamists, terrorists and Al-Qaeda are behind," he said.

Maliki added: "Based on information we have, there are known factions... trying to jump on these legal demands and turn them in another direction that we certainly do not want."

Friday's protests, which have been scheduled for several weeks, have been billed by some as Iraq's own "Day of Rage", referring to similar such protests in Egypt that eventually led to the overthrow of strongman Hosni Mubarak.

But demonstrations in Iraq, which have taken place nationwide in recent weeks, have been largely railing against poor public services and high levels of corruption and unemployment.

Along with being rated the fourth-most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International, Iraq also suffers from poor electricity and water provision and unemployment remains high as the country's main income generator, oil production, is not labour intensive.

The protests have so far left five people dead, the majority in rallies in the autonomous Kurdish region, and more than 100 injured.

Maliki's remarks were stronger than those of Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim Atta, who said on Tuesday that officials were wary of the protests being infiltrated by insurgents.

Protest organisers disputed Maliki's characterisation of their aims, and said their demonstration would go ahead regardless.

"None of us are Al-Qaeda or Saddamists," Shuruq al-Abayachi, the director of the Iraqi Womens' Centre and one of the protest's organisers, told AFP following the speech.

"All of us are nationalists calling for services, an end to corruption and for reforms to the political system."

Friday's rally, in keeping with similar protests across the region, has largely been organised on social networking website Facebook by groups such as "Iraqi Revolution of Rage" and "Change, Liberty and a Real Democracy."

Iraq's top Shiite religious cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has expressed his "sympathy for the legitimate demands" of the demonstrators, but added he was fearful of their rally being exploited by "private agendas."

In a bid to head off the protests, Iraqi authorities have decided to slash politicians' salaries, increase funds dedicated to food for the needy, and have delayed a planned law that would raise import tariffs and, thus, prices of goods in markets.

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