Iraq election prospects improve after peace talks

1.30pm

BAGHDAD - Iraq's plans to hold elections in January have gained traction after a Shi'ite militia agreed to disarm in Baghdad and delegates from rebel-held Falluja said the Sunni Muslim city wanted to vote in the polls.

The progress came in separate sets of talks with the Iraqi interim government and US officials.

The Mehdi Army militia led by Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr agreed to hand over weapons to Iraqi police from Monday under a deal that could defuse the Baghdad flashpoint of Sadr City.

Sadr's militia has staged two uprisings against US and Iraqi forces this year. A Sunni insurgency still rages in large swathes of northern and central Iraq, including Falluja.

Karim al-Bakhati, a tribal leader negotiating for people in Sadr City, told Reuters US forces had promised to stop bombarding the vast Shi'ite slum area with immediate effect.

"We have agreed that starting from Monday, the Sadr movement will hand over its weapons to the Iraqi police," he said, adding that collection points would be agreed in the next day or two.

Bakhati said US Ambassador John Negroponte had been present when he reached the accord with Iraqi officials. A government source confirmed a disarmament deal had been struck.

Sadr aides said the agreement would apply initially only to Sadr City, not to other restive Shi'ite areas of Iraq.

Falluja delegates said the city wanted to take part in the elections and could accept the return of Iraqi security forces.

"A delegation from Falluja is now discussing the entry of Iraqi National Guards to the city with the defence ministry," chief Falluja negotiator Khaled al-Jumaili told Reuters.

He was speaking after talks at a US military base near Falluja, attended by Negroponte and government officials.

"The people of Falluja support the elections and want to vote in them," said Jumaili, a mosque preacher who is a member of the lawless city's Mujahideen Shura (council).

Falluja has been in the hands of anti-American insurgents since US forces failed to dislodge them in an April offensive.

Foreign Islamist militants, including those led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, are also said to have bases there.

It was not clear whether hardline guerrillas or foreign militants would go along with any deal reached by Jumaili.

TARGETING ZARQAWI

The US military has launched repeated air strikes on targets in Falluja it say are used by Zarqawi's men. His followers beheaded British hostage Kenneth Bigley on Thursday.

Kidnappers struck again on Saturday, seizing a Turkish truck driver identified as Halil Oglu and wounding his colleague near Baiji, 180 km north of Baghdad, police said.

Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi says his government is not negotiating with rebels in Sadr City, Falluja and other troublespots, but says insurgents can be amnestied if they surrender weapons and make way for Iraqi security forces.

Allawi, backed by US and British forces, wants to regain control of all rebel-held areas before the elections. Rampant violence has raised doubts about the feasibility of the polls.

Plans for a population census due to have been conducted this month have been scrapped, Iraqi officials said. Voters will now produce their food ration cards to enable them to vote.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was meeting counterparts from 18 other nations on a US aircraft carrier in the Gulf, said Iraqi security forces could grow by 40,000 and the Pentagon might send more troops to Iraq before the polls.

"By the time we get to the elections we may have another plus or minus 40,000 Iraqi trained and equipped security forces" on top of the roughly 100,000 that the Pentagon has said are already on the job, he told reporters travelling with him.

Rumsfeld said adding US troops to the 138,000 now in Iraq was up to Army General George Casey, US commander in Iraq, and Army General John Abizaid, US commander in the region.

Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group killed Bigley shortly after the 62-year-old engineer briefly escaped, insurgent sources said. They said Bigley managed to get away for about half an hour with the help of one of his captors before he was caught in farmland near the town of Latifiya, southwest of Baghdad.

Insecurity and violence have plagued Iraq since last year's US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq