Mr. Mubarak, a Sunni Arab, had made the remarks in an interview on Saturday with Al Arabiya, a popular Middle Eastern network.

"The comments have upset Iraqi people who come from different religious and ethnic backgrounds and have astonished and upset the Iraqi government," said Mr. Jaafari, who is fighting to keep his job.

"What also drew our astonishment was that he described the security problems in Iraq as civil war at a time when our people have proven that they are avoiding sectarian war," he added.

Mr. Talabani said: "The Shiites' patriotism cannot be questioned. They are pioneers in the national struggle."

The leading Shiite party in the country, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, demanded that Mr. Mubarak apologize and threatened a boycott of the Egyptian government if he refused.

The Supreme Council, led by Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, is especially sensitive about its perceived loyalties to Iran, because the party was founded in Iran in the early 1980's and has a militia that fought against Iraq during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, in which a million people died. The Supreme Council entered Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein and is trying to live down its history of fighting against Iraqis.

Mr. Mubarak told Al Arabiya on Saturday, "Shiites are mostly always loyal to Iran and not the countries where they live."

He added, "Naturally Iran has an influence over Shiites, who make up 65 percent of Iraq's population."

Many Iraqi Shiites are known to distrust Iran, a vestige of historical Arab hostility toward the Persians and the war between the countries.

But some of the governing parties now in Iraq are very close to Iran. Besides the Supreme Council, they include Mr. Jaafari's group, known as the Islamic Dawa Party, and the organization of Moktada al-Sadr, the young cleric who has led two uprisings against American forces.

The American ambassador here, Zalmay Khalilzad, has been authorized by the White House to open discussions with Iran on issues involving Iraq.

Mr. Khalilzad told Fox News on Sunday that a meeting would not be held until after the Iraqis formed a new government. "We do not want to give the impression that the United States is sitting with Iran to decide about the Iraqi government," he said.

Mr. Talabani said some Iraqi leaders would take part in the talks, including the prime minister, the president, the speaker of Parliament and Mr. Hakim.

In recent weeks, the White House has increased its warnings to Iran over its nuclear program, and news reports in the past week have said the Bush administration is drawing up plans for possibly bombing or invading Iran.

Violence flared across the country on the third anniversary of the fall of Baghdad to the American-led invasion force, called Iraqi Freedom Day by the government.

In the southern town of Qurna, believed by some to be the site of the Garden of Eden, the mayor and his wife were shot dead in their car on Sunday morning.

In Baghdad, concealed bombs in five locations killed at least four people and wounded at least 16. The police in the capital found a total of five bodies at three other sites; the victims had been tortured and shot.

In Kirkuk, to the north, an assailant threw a grenade at an American convoy. The Americans killed him and discovered that he was an Iraqi Army officer, said Col. Yadgar Abdullah, of the Iraqi police.