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It also comes ahead of a parliamentary election on March 7 in which Bolani is running at the head of his own coalition against a slate headed by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Bolani said he had "ordered that the heavy weapons used by some of the foreign security firms be collected." Speaking to Reuters at a campaign event, he gave no further details and did not clarify whether that included licensed weapons.
He reiterated that he had ordered all former employees of Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, to be kicked out of Iraq.
"We gave them a deadline to leave Iraq. It will expire in the next few days," he said. He declined to say what would happen to former Blackwater workers if they did not leave or how the Interior Ministry knew if someone had worked for Blackwater in the past.
He said most former employees had left when the company lost its license to operate last year. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh had previously said there was no official order expelling former Blackwater workers.
The Blackwater incident in 2007 came to symbolise for many Iraqis the impunity from prosecution in Iraq enjoyed by foreign security contractors after the 2003 U.S. invasion.
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