NAJAF, Iraq, March 29 (Reuters) - Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has told his followers not to lay down their arms, rejecting a demand by the government, which launched a crackdown against them this week, a top aide said on Saturday.

"Moqtada al-Sadr asks his followers not to deliver weapons to the government. Weapons should be turned over only to a government which can expel the occupiers," aide Hassan Zargani told Reuters by telephone. Another Sadr official, Haidar al-Jabari, confirmed the remarks.

(Reporting by Khaled Farhan; writing by Peter Graff; editing by Ross Colvin)

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