Iraq's interim deputy president has urged U.S. troops to leave the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf to end a week of fierce fighting, appearing to open a split within the government over how to end the crisis.

In fresh violence elsewhere, at least six Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded when a bomb exploded in a market north of Baghdad on Wednesday, hospital sources said. They said the explosion occurred in Khan Bani Saad village, around 25 miles north of the capital. There were no further details.

Fighting between U.S. forces and militiamen loyal to radical Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Najaf has killed and wounded hundreds in the toughest challenge yet for the six-week-old administration of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

"I call for multinational forces to leave Najaf and for only Iraqi forces to remain there," Ibrahim Jaafari said in remarks broadcast on Al Jazeera television on Wednesday.

"Iraqi forces can administer Najaf to end this phenomenon of violence in this city that is holy to all Muslims."

The Shi'ite unrest has disrupted Iraq's vital oil exports and triggered a spike in world prices.

Iraq's exports were running at a reduced rate on Wednesday as engineers repaired a sabotaged pipeline feeding the country's southern terminals, oil officials and a shipping agent said.

Oil prices hovered just below record highs. U.S. light crude was up eight cents to $44.60 a barrel, below Tuesday's $45.04.

Spokesmen for the prime minister, president and also the U.S. military appeared surprised by Jaafari's comments, but they had no immediate reaction.

Jaafari is a respected politician who heads the Shi'ite Muslim Dawa Party, one of the largest Muslim groups in the country.

He told Jazeera the interim government should keep "political bridges open" with Sadr and his loyalists. But, he said, the administration should resort to "extraordinary" means if Sadr rejected the overtures and continued fighting.

Najaf was relatively quiet on Wednesday morning after a night of sporadic clashes around the city's ancient cemetery and Imam Ali Shrine, although U.S. warplanes patrolled the skies.

The Najaf fighting is part of a radical Shi'ite uprising in several cities across central and southern Iraq. It is the second rebellion from Sadr's Mehdi Army in four months.

In the past 24 hours, at least 30 people were killed and 219 wounded in five Iraqi cities including Baghdad, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday. The figure did not include Najaf or casualties among foreign forces.

U.S. forces say they have killed 360 Sadr loyalists so far in Najaf. Sadr's spokesmen say far fewer have died.

Source: CD/Agencies