Iraq has shut down its main oil export pipeline in the south, after intelligence indicating that shiite militiamen might attack infrastructure, an Iraqi oil official said Saturday.

"The situation in Basra is bad. Management ordered the pipeline shut late yesterday (Friday)," said an oil official of Iraq's Southern Oil Company, who declined to give his name.

He added that "very few people showed up to work again today. The feeling is it is not wise to challenge Sadr's followers," referring to the "uprising" in central and southern Iraq by Mehdi Army militia led by anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

A spokesman of the Southern Oil Company confirmed that "the production has been stopped since the start of the crisis and now we have stopped pumping too through the pipeline."

On Monday, the company halted production following threats by Sadr supporters to blow up the vital oil infrastructure in the south if the US troops did not stop their strike on Sadr's militia in Najaf.

The flows of oil from the offshore terminals were running through another smaller pipelines at a rate of one million barrels per day, said the company's official.

The crude exports from Basra's two main offshore terminals were slashed in half, costing the government at least 30 million dollars a day in lost revenue.