BAGHDAD: Followers of influential Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr were gathering on a main bridge in Baghdad on Friday, demanding that they be allowed to march to the gates of the heavily fortified Green Zone to hold an anti-corruption sit-in.

Security forces put barbed wire across the bridge leading to the zone, which houses government offices, the parliament and embassies.

Hundreds of demonstrators rallied on the opposite side of the bridge, carrying Iraqi flags and chanting "Let's get rid of them, they're all thieves!".

The Interior Ministry said it had not authorised any sit-in near the Green Zone, fearing that it could lead to clashes with forces guarding the entrance.

Sadr on Thursday rejected calls to cancel the sit-in, calling the Green Zone "a bastion of support for corruption".

The cleric wants Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to replace cabinet ministers with technocrats unaffiliated with political parties in order to counter systemic political patronage that has abetted corruption.