IRAQ’S most powerful Shi’ite cleric arrived home from Britain yesterday and his aides called for a nationwide march to Najaf to end nearly three weeks of fierce fighting between US forces and Shi’ite militants in the holy city.

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.