Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi will resign if political parties can agree on his replacement, the president has said, as mass protests continue.

President Barham Saleh is also drafting a new election law that will allow early parliamentary polls to be held.

in another development inside Iraq, Iraq's top cleric has warned that enemies of Iraq and affiliated groups in the country are plotting to create internal strife and bring the country back to the "era of dictatorship", an apparent reference to the former rule of Saddam Hussein.   

Addressing worshipers during Friday prayers in the holy city of Karbala, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani urged protesters to prevent attacks on people and their property and distance themselves from those committing such acts.

"It is imperative on peaceful demonstrators that they separate their ranks from non-peaceful individuals and cooperate on shunning saboteurs - whoever they are - and not allow them to abuse peaceful protests to damage and attack the property of citizens," a representative of Ayatollah Sistani said as he delivered the top cleric's sermon.

"The enemies and their levers, in order to achieve their malicious goals, plan to spread chaos and plunge the country into internal strife and then return it to dictatorship, so everyone must work together to take away this opportunity from them," he added.