Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on Iraqis not to participate in massive planned demonstrations in Baghdad on Friday, describing their organisers as insurgents and loyalists of Saddam Hussein.
His 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."
On 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 exports, are 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.
"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."