Iraqi officials and aides to a radical Shiite cleric were trying to negotiate an end to nine days of fighting in the holy city of Najaf today after US forces suspended an offensive against Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia.

US MARINES backed by tanks and aircraft seized the heart of the holy Iraqi city of Najaf yesterday in a major assault on Shi'ite rebels, but they kept out of a site sacred to millions of Shi'ites around the world.

British forces clashed with a rebel Shiite cleric’s militia which had threatened to unleash 1,000 fighters in Basra today unless four arrested men were freed.

SHI'ITE gunmen seized a police station in Najaf yesterday in the first outbreak of fighting since an agreement to end weeks of bloody clashes between US troops and militia forces.

US officials have proposed that a radical Shiite cleric’s militia withdraw over a 72-hour period from Najaf, the governor of the holy Shiite city said today.

Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr will end his violent standoff with American troops if the US-led coalition postpones its legal case against him and sets up an Iraqi force to patrol his stronghold of Najaf, Iraqi leaders in the city said today.