BAGHDAD, Oct 13, 2008 (AFP) - More than 200 Iraqi doctors in the city of Karbala who say they have received death threats after unsuccessful medical procedures have closed their clinics in protest, their leader said on Monday.

'More than 200 doctors closed their clinics and stopped their work after they received death threats,' Ali Abu Taheen, head of the doctors' association in the southern city, said in a statement emailed to AFP.

The doctors, who also work in Karbala's largest public hospital, the Al-Hussein, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad (62 miles), say they will strike until the government guarantees their safety.

Angry families of patients who died during surgery must stop asking for financial compensation and recognise that medical procedures often do not meet expectations, Taheen said.

'Everyone knows surgery is dangerous and the chance of success is often very low, let alone not speaking of the will of God,' Taheen said, adding that complex surgery often has to be carried out with rudimentary devices.

The doctors have presented the government with a list of five demands.

They called for police protection, for death threats to count as terrorist acts and for legal support in handling patient claims.

Tribal leaders should show respect for doctors while relatives of patients should sign pre-surgery agreements banning them from resorting to violence if medical procedures are unsuccessful.

Last month the Iraqi government said it would allow doctors to carry guns in self-defence and pledged not to detain them during security operations.

The move to grant weapons permits to doctors came in the light of the killing by insurgents of a large number of professional people, especially medical experts, since the 2003 US-led invasion.