Baghdad, Iraq ? As a huge funeral procession for a beloved Shiite cleric marched to the holy city of Najaf, Arab TV broadcast an audiotape Monday purportedly from Saddam Hussein denying any involvement in the bombing that killed the moderate ayatollah.

The U.S.-picked Iraqi Governing Council, meanwhile, named a new Cabinet in a step toward reclaiming some powers from the American occupiers. The new government mirrors the ethnic and religious makeup of the 25-member council.

The voice on the tape appeared to be that of Saddam and employed his well-known rhetorical flourishes in urging Iraqis not to believe those who blamed him and his followers for Friday’s attack on the sacred Imam Ali shrine in Najaf that killed Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim and 124 other people.

“Many of you may have heard the snakes hissing, the servants of the invaders, occupiers, infidels, and how they have managed to accuse the followers of Saddam Hussein of responsibility for the attack on al-Hakim without any evidence,” said the tape, broadcast by the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite television station and the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp.

“They rushed to accuse before investigating,” the voice said.

While denying a role in the Najaf bombing, the voice made no mention of the Jordanian Embassy bombing on Aug. 7 or the U.N. headquarters attack 12 days later, which investigators suspect may have also been committed by Saddam followers.

It was impossible to immediately authenticate the tape. The CIA said Monday it was reviewing the recording.

Al-Hakim, killed in Friday’s huge blast shortly after delivering a sermon calling for Iraqi unity, was a longtime opponent of Saddam and spent more than two decades in exile in Iran, returning only in May.

His remains are to be buried today in Najaf when the funeral procession reaches the ayatollah’s hometown. It started in Baghdad on Sunday and passed through the second holiest city of Karbala on Monday.

Iraqi mourners escort a truck transporting the symbolic coffin for Iraqi Shiite cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim during a funeral procession through the streets of Karbala. The cleric was killed Friday, along with dozens of others, when a car bomb was detonated outside the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, 110 miles south of Baghdad.

Masses of Iraqi security forces were present Monday throughout Najaf, the country’s holiest Shiite city, with 400 police preparing to take up positions around the mosque. U.S. forces could not be seen in the city proper and were believed manning checkpoints on roads into Najaf.

A group of Iraqi Shiite Muslim women chant as they hold a poster of Shiite cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim during his funeral procession in Karbala.