Pyongyang, November 9 (KCNA) -- Anti-U.S. Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said in an interview with a TV on Thursday he would resist any American presence in Iraq, including a civilian one, beyond year-end when all U.S. forces depart nearly nine years.

"If they stay in Iraq, through a military or non-military (presence) ... we will consider them an occupation and we will resist them whatever the price will be. Even a civilian presence, we reject it," the cleric said.