Tens of thousands of protesters from Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority poured onto the streets after Friday, December 28 prayers in a show of force against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, keeping up a week-old blockade of a highway, Reuters said.

Around 60,000 people blocked the main road through the city of Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of the capital, setting fire to the Iranian flag and shouting "out, out Iran! Baghdad stays free" and "Maliki you coward, don't take your advice from Iran".

Many Sunnis, whose community dominated Iraq until the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, accuse Maliki of refusing to share power and of favoring Shi'ite, non-Arab neighbor Iran.

Protests flared last week after troops loyal to Maliki, who is from the Shi'ite majority, detained bodyguards of his finance minister, a Sunni.

Activists demands include an end to the marginalization of Sunnis, the abolition of anti-terrorism laws they say are used to target them, and the release of detainees.

"I came to Falluja to express my support for their demands. I hope we proceed to Baghdad," said 48-year-old Faiq al-Awazi.

Demonstrations were also held in the northern city of Mosul and in Samarra, where protesters chanted "the people want to bring down the regime", echoing the slogan used in popular revolts that ousted leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

The protests are likely to add to concerns the civil war in neighboring Syria, where majority Sunnis are fighting to topple a ruler backed by Shi'ite Iran, will drive Iraq back to the sectarian slaughter of 2005-07.