BAGHDAD, Iraq: A US military brigade is building a five-kilometre, 3.6-metre-high, concrete wall to cut off one of Baghdad's Sunni districts from the Shiite neighbourhoods that surround it.

Construction began last week and is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

"Dividing up the entire city with barriers is not part of the plan," a US military spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver, said.

Sunnis and Shiites living in the shadow of the barrier are united in their contempt for it.

"Are they trying to divide us into different sectarian cantons?" said Abu Ahmed, a Sunni shop owner in Adhamiya. "This will deepen the sectarian strife and only serve to abort efforts aimed at reconciliation."

Some of his customers come from Shiite or mixed neighbourhoods that are now cut off by the barrier.

Several residents likened the wall to the barriers built by Israel around some Palestinians areas. "Are we in the West Bank?" asked Abu Qusay, a pharmacist, who said access to his favourite kebab restaurant in Adhamiya had been cut off.