BAGHDAD — Prime Minister al-Maliki appealed to millions of Shiite Muslims today to reconcile their differences and boost the country’s fragile political process in a speech marking a major religious holiday.

The Iraqi leader, who is Shiite, said the country had achieved stability and overcome sectarian strife, although he acknowledged the persistent violence in northern Iraq.

“National reconciliation efforts have succeeded in Iraq and the Iraqis have once again become loving brothers,” he said in a speech broadcast live on television. “We have ended the security instability and we have to chase Al Qaeda elements in other places such as Mosul, Diyala, and Kirkuk in order to finish the battle for good so that we can concentrate on the reconstruction phase.”

Mr. al-Maliki, addressing the crowds below from a raised podium in the holy city of Karbala, said it would be “the year of construction and services” and he called on all Iraqis to work to bring the country closer together.

“I affirm the necessity of pushing the political process, boosting security and the economy and combating corruption. … We should be united and keep away from personal interests in order to face the greater challenges and achieve final victory,” Mr. al-Maliki said.

The speech came a day after Iraq’s presidential council rejected a measure setting up provincial elections and sent it back to parliament for reworking — the latest setback to the America-backed national reconciliation efforts.

The Bush administration has sought passage of a provincial powers law as one of 18 benchmarks to promote reconciliation among Iraq’s Sunni and Shiite Arab communities and the large Kurdish minority.

The parliamentary bloc loyal to a radical Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, sharply criticized the decision to refer the measure back to parliament, saying the members of the presidential council were allowing their personal political affiliations jeopardize the national interest.

“We are suffering a new wave aimed at the destruction of a new Iraqi national law (that) could fracture the country’s unity and replace it with laws based on sectarian and political motivations,” a Sadrist lawmaker, Nassar al-Rubaie, said.

He expressed concern that Iraq was shifting from a period of sectarian violence to “a period of chaos and corruption.”

Millions of pilgrims flooded the streets of Karbala, about 50 miles south of Baghdad, today to mark Arbaeen, the end of a 40-day mourning period following the anniversary of the seventh-century death of Imam Hussein, one of Shiite Muslims’ most revered figures.

The Karbala provincial governor, Aqil al-Khazali, estimated that the main procession in Karbala drew some 9 million pilgrims including 80,000 foreigners. The American military has said 6 million pilgrims traveled for the holiday.

Fears of violence continued to plague the gathering though after at least 64 people were slain in assaults over the past few days, 56 of them in a suicide bombing that struck a roadside refreshment tent packed with worshippers.

The American military blamed Sunni-led Al Qaeda in Iraq for the bombing, which seemed aimed at provoking sectarian violence. Shiite religious festivals have been targeted repeatedly in the past few years.