Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, left, shakes hands with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, right, after giving her a flower during their meeting in Baghdad. During an unannounced visit to Iraq's capital, Rice met Sunday with Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Baghdad ? Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mocked anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as a coward on Sunday, hours after the radical leader threatened to declare war unless U.S. and Iraqi forces end a military crackdown on his followers.

Rice, in the Iraqi capital to tout security gains and what she calls an emerging political consensus, said al-Sadr is content to issue threats and edicts from the safety of Iran, where he is studying.

Al-Sadr heads an unruly militia that was the main target of an Iraqi government assault in the oil-rich city of Basra last month, and his future role as a spoiler is an open question.

“I know he’s sitting in Iran,” Rice said dismissively, when asked about al-Sadr’s latest threat to lift a self-imposed cease-fire with government and U.S. forces. “I guess it’s all-out war for anybody but him,” Rice said. “I guess that’s the message; his followers can go to their deaths and he’s in Iran.”

In a statement on his official Web site, al-Sadr said, “We denounce the visit of U.S. secretary, asking the government to ban the entrance of the terrorists’ occupiers to our pure land.”

The statement asked Iraqis to express their opposition to the visit through peaceful means.

A full-blown uprising by al-Sadr, who led two rebellions against U.S.-led forces in 2004, could lead to a dramatic increase in violence in Iraq at a time when the Sunni extremist group al-Qaida in Iraq appears poised for new attacks after suffering severe blows last year.

In a warning posted Saturday on his Web site, al-Sadr said he had tried to defuse tensions by declaring the truce last August, only to see the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki respond by closing his offices and “resorting to assassinations.”

He accused the government of selling out to the Americans and branding his followers as criminals.

“So I am giving my final warning … to the Iraqi government … to take the path of peace and abandon violence against its people,” al-Sadr said. “If the government does not refrain … we will declare an open war until liberation.”

Rice praised al-Maliki for confronting al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, which had a chokehold on Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city. The assault was al-Maliki’s most decisive act by far against al-Sadr, a fellow Shiite and once a political patron. Kurdish and Sunni politicians, including a chief rival, have since rallied to al-Maliki, and the Bush administration argues he could emerge stronger from what had appeared to be a military blunder.

During five days of heavy fighting last month, Iraqi troops struggled against militiamen, particularly the Mahdi Army. The ill-prepared Iraqi military was plagued by desertions and poor organization and U.S. troops had to take over in some instances. The offensive was inconclusive, with Iran helping mediate a truce. Fighting has continued in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, home to many of al-Sadr’s followers.

“Some of the violence is a byproduct of a good decision,” to take on militias and consolidate military power, Rice told reporters following a few hours of meetings and lunch with Iraqi leaders.

“That, I think, is what has given the sense to the Iraqis that they have a new opportunity, a window of opportunity,” Rice said. “I don’t think you would have seen this kind of unity,” before.