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CAIRO, April 22 (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Sunday he had asked for an end to construction work on a wall which would separate a mainly Sunni Muslim part of Baghdad from nearby Shi'ite areas.

"I asked yesterday that it be stopped and that alternatives be found to protect the area," Maliki told reporters in Cairo after talks with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa.

The U.S. military said last week it was building the wall in the Adhamiya quarter of Baghdad to protect the minority Sunni community from attacks.

Maliki said he objected to the wall, even if the aim was to protect the district's inhabitants, rather than to separate the two religious communities.

"I said that I fear this wall might have repercussions which remind us of other walls, which we reject," he added, apparently referring to other cities divided in the 20th century, such as Berlin and Beirut.

Maliki arrived in Egypt on Sunday at the start of an Arab tour. He is preparing for two international conferences set to take place in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in early May.

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