Visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nourial-Maliki revealed here Sunday that he has ordered a halt to a controversial barrier construction aimed at separating the capital Baghdad's Sunni and Shiite areas.

Maliki, who was on his first visit to Egypt in the current capacity, made the remarks during a joint press conference with Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa.

Maliki told the reporters that he rejected the construction of the wall and ordered the halt of the construction on Saturday, adding that there were other ways to protect Iraqis from bomb attack.

The U.S. army said last week that it was constructing a five-km-long concrete wall in a northern Baghdad district in the hope of protecting the minority Sunnis from attack.

At night in recent days, U.S. troops have been deploying around the Sunni enclave of Adhamiyah to erect a five-kilometre wall made of six-tons concrete sections.

However, Iraqi politicians have accused the U.S. military of hardening the city's already bitter sectarian divisions, saying erecting a wall around Adhamiyah is the height of failure and a bad, faulty step that violates human rights.

Many local residents also denounced that they had not been consulted and the wall will make the whole district a prison, which is "collective punishment".

On his part, Moussa highlighted the importance of bringing in together all Iraqi parties to the negotiating table, saying he has agreed with Maliki to hold any conference on Iraq either in Baghdad or at the AL headquarters in Cairo.

Egypt was the first leg of Maliki's regional tour. After Egypt, Maliki will fly to Kuwait and other regional countries for preparatory talks ahead of the upcoming conferences on Iraq to be held in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on May 3-4.

His regional tour aims to rally support for his government and its efforts to reduce widespread sectarian violence in the country.