Monday's suicide car bombing of the Shiite foundation's headquarters in Baghdad came amid a dispute between the Sunni and Shiite endowments, which run Iraq's religious sites, over the management of a revered Shiite shrine in a Sunni city north of the capital.

"The prime minister ordered a stop to the transfer of properties that belong to the Shiite and Sunni endowments, and called on each side that feels  it is wronged to seek recourse in the federal courts," a statement from Maliki's office said.

The statement, issued after the premier held a joint meeting with the heads of the Sunni and Shiite endowments, added that Maliki ordered that all Shiite and Sunni mosques and shrines maintain their current administrations.

On Monday, a suicide car bomb targeting the Shiite endowment in central Baghdad killed at least 25 people and wounded more than 65.

A day later, the Shiite endowment blamed Sunni extremists cooperating with "countries which do not want good for Iraq."

The Shiite endowment had said in the immediate aftermath of Monday's attack that it received threats because of a dispute over the Al-Askari shrine, a Shiite mausoleum in the mostly Sunni city of Samarra.

The iconic gold-domed shrine was hit by a brutal Al-Qaeda suicide attack in February 2006 that ignited bloody confessional violence.

Shiite endowment officials had produced documents that attributed the management of the shrine to the Shiite foundation, sparking tensions with its Sunni counterpart.