Baghdad (AFP) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered security forces to prepare to open Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone government and embassy area to the public, his office said Friday.

The order comes in the third week of a reform drive by Abadi aimed at combatting rampant corruption and streamlining the bloated government, in response to weeks of protests and calls from top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Abadi directed security forces to make "the necessary arrangements to open the Green Zone to the citizens," a statement from his office said.

If the move actually goes ahead, it is likely to face significant opposition from embassies in the Green Zone -- including those of the United States and Britain -- due to security concerns.

While attacks have dropped in Baghdad compared with the first half of last year, bombings that are sometimes claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group are still a frequent occurrence in the capital.

The Green Zone is surrounded by high concrete walls, guarded by labyrinths of successive checkpoints and protected by Abrams tanks, armoured personnel carriers and elite members of the security forces.

It held lavish palaces occupied by former president Saddam Hussein and other senior figures and supporters of his regime before his overthrow in 2003, but was much more accessible then than it is now.

After his fall, those same palaces served as the headquarters for the US-led occupation, and later for Iraq's new political elite, whose corruption has aroused widespread popular ire.

Easy entry requires going through a byzantine process to obtain necessary badges that has itself been said to be a source of graft, with large payments reportedly expediting the procedures.

Abadi also ordered that streets shut by political parties and influential figures be opened in Baghdad and other provinces.

Top politicians have closed off roads leading to their homes and even those of their relatives in Baghdad, while pro-government militiamen have also shut streets, adding to the already dense traffic in the capital.

The premier also ordered the formation of committees to review the sale and rental of state properties and to return illegally obtained assets and restore to the state those that were "unfairly evaluated".

Some top politicians have managed to obtain Saddam-era palaces or other valuable properties either free of charge or for far less than their true value.

Both opening the streets and efforts to recover ill-gotten state assets are almost certain to face major resistance from politicians across the political spectrum who have benefitted from both.

Tehran (AFP) - Iran's most expensive movie, "Muhammad", which chronicles the childhood of the Muslim prophet, opened nationwide, winning praise from early audiences.

Directed by Majid Majidi, the 171-minute, visually stunning film cost around $40 million (36 million euros), partly funded by the state, and took more than seven years to complete.

Majidi says the aim of his work, the first part of a trilogy, is to reclaim the rightful image of Islam, which he said extremists have distorted.

"Unfortunately at this time the impression of Islam is of a radical, fanatical and violent religion, which is not what it's about," he said in Montreal, where "Muhammad" had its international premiere, hours after screening back home.

"The barbaric acts of terrorism conducted by terrorist groups under the guise of Islam are not related to Islam," he said, alluding to beheadings and destruction of cultural treasures by Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

"Islam is a religion of peace, friendship and love, and I tried to show this in the film."

- Ambitious goals -

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Majid Majidi directed "Muhammad", which is Iran's most expensive ever movie (AFP Photo …

"Muhammad", which captures Saudi Arabia more than 1,400 years ago, offers much more than stereotypical trains of Arabs on camels riding across yellow sand dunes.

It takes cinemagoers from the birth of the future prophet up to his teenage years, and is packed with miracles.

The crew of "Muhammad" is indicative of the film's ambition.

It includes three-time Oscar-winning Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, while the score was devised by India's Allah Rakha Rahman, a double Academy Award winner for the Danny Boyle-directed blockbuster "Slumdog Millionaire".

In one scene, an army of tribesmen mounted on elephants charges the holy city of Mecca to heart-pounding music, only to be destroyed by a flock of crows hurling stones.

In another, intensely emotional scene, the boy heals his nanny with a touch of his hand.

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Iranians buy tickets to watch the much-anticipated multimillion-dollar film "Muhammad" in …

"It was very moving for us," said Mahsa Rasoulzadeh, 40, accompanied by her mother and teenage daughter at Kourosh Cinema in west Tehran.

- Strong demand in Tehran -

The theatre was around two-thirds full at an 11:00 am showing on Thursday, the first day of the Iranian weekend, but afternoon sessions were sold out in advance and two more had to be added for after midnight to meet demand.

Abolfazl Fatehi, 21, who came to watch the film in a family group of seven, said he loved it.

"I think this film can be a starting point of research for those who don't know Islam," he said.

Mehdi Azar, a 25-year-old worker at the cinema, said that while the film's length might put some movie-goers off, "it's attractive enough to draw an audience. It was very attractive visually".

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Iranian actress Sareh Bayat on the set of "Muhammad" in January 2013 (AFP Photo/Mohammad F …

Outside the Imperial Cinema in Montreal, around 50 protesters chanted against Iran, accusing Majidi of betrayal and calling the event Iranian propaganda.

The film is the second major production on the prophet.

The first, "Muhammad, Messenger of God", was made in 1976 by Syrian-American filmmaker Moustapha Akkad.

It was a huge success with Shiite Iranians.

Forty years on, with its cost around 20 times higher than any other Iran-produced film, Majidi's effort has raised high expectations.

Despite broad early enthusiasm some felt the movie had not lived up to the hype.

"I had heard so much about it... but, to be honest, my expectations were much higher than what I saw," said Komeil Arjmandi, 23, who is studying film direction.

"I wanted the film to rise higher than Mr Akkad's movie."

Yet, officials don't want the film to be compared with others.

In order to "preserve the dignity" of the prophet, "Muhammad" was excluded from competition in Iran's major Fajr festival in February and was instead showcased in a separate showing.

While Iran has denounced cartoons of the prophet like those published by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Shiites are generally more relaxed than Sunnis about depiction of religious figures.

Many showings of "Muhammad" in Shiite-majority Iran have already sold out, but the film has triggered controversy in the Sunni world.

No announcement has yet been made on when the two other parts of the "Muhammad" trilogy, covering the rest of his life, will be produced.

Moscow (AFP) - Russia on Friday hosted the newly appointed US special envoy for Syria as world powers intensify efforts to end the four-year civil war raging in the country.

The new envoy, Michael Ratney, who was appointed to his position last month, had previously worked for the State Department in the Middle East.

In Moscow, Ratney met with Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov and other senior officials, but no details about their meeting were immediately released.

The spokesman for the US embassy in Moscow, Will Stevens, told AFP ahead of Ratney's meetings that his visit "reaffirms the United States’ strong commitment to working with the international community to help Syrians lay the foundation for a free, democratic, and pluralistic future."

Numerous initiatives have tried at the international level to seek an end to a crisis that has claimed more than 240,000 lives but all of them have failed.

In recent weeks Middle Eastern leaders have flocked to Moscow, one of the few remaining allies of Syrian President Bashad al-Assad.

This week Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Syria with Jordanian King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier this month hosted his Saudi and Iranian counterparts as well as members of the Syrian opposition tolerated by the Assad regime.

Moscow is pushing a plan for a broader grouping than the current US-led coalition to fight the Islamic State (IS) group, which would include Syria's government and its allies.

Assad's opponents have rejected the idea.

Ratney is expected to travel to Geneva and Riyadh for further meetings on the crisis.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Erika, a tropical storm that was losing strength as it hit Haiti with heavy rains and strong winds, has dissipated, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Saturday.

"Erika has dissipated as a tropical cyclone," the Miami-based hurricane center said on Twitter.

It said earlier on Saturday that Erika's maximum sustained winds had dropped to 40 mph (64 kph), just above the threshold for a tropical storm.

The remnants of Erika were now expected to move over Cuba, providing welcome relief from a drought, before heading out into the Gulf of Mexico and skirting South Florida.

The NHC said the weather system could still reform as a tropical storm before reaching the northern Florida Panhandle.

Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency on Friday, noting the storm could travel "up the spine of Florida" from Sunday into next week. He planned to give an update on Erika's potential impact on Florida later on Saturday.

(Reporting by David Adams in Miami and Mohammad Zargham in Washington; Editing by Alison Williams)

Washington (AFP) - Western-backed Kurdish fighters freed seven villages from the clasps of the Islamic State group in northern Iraq in recent days, the US-led coalition battling the jihadists.

But the extremists still control broad swathes of land in the war-torn country, where the IS group has waged a terrifying offensive of forced religious conversions and beheadings.

Bolstered by coalition airstrikes, the Peshmerga fighters wrestled back more than 200 square kilometers (80 square miles) near the town of Tuz since August 26, the Combined Joint Task Force said.

Planes and drones conducted a total of 25 strikes, helping the Kurdish forces in "liberating seven villages," a statement said.

Elsewhere in Iraq, the situation remains more static, a spokesman for the US military's Central Command (Centcom) said.

In Ramadi, capital of the key battleground province of Anbar, Iraqi forces continue to try and isolate the city, which fell into IS hands in May.

"It remains a challenging fight" said Centcom spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder.

Meanwhile in the Baiji area north of Baghdad, where fierce fighting has lasted for months, Iraqi forces "continue to hold their ground" at an oil refinery that has been scene of much fighting.

Within the city of Baiji itself IS has taken "back some ground but they paid a very heavy price for it."

Overall, Iraqi forces "are dealing with some tough challenges in certain areas," Ryder said, but the IS group is under pressure to allocate its resources and "continues to lose fighters and leaders at a high rate."

On Thursday, two suicide attacks claimed by the Islamic State group killed two Iraqi generals in Anbar.