Gunbattles rage in holy city as talks break down

US ARMOURED vehicles and tanks rolled back into the streets of Najaf and troops battled Shi'ite militants in a vast cemetery yesterday in a resumption of fighting after the collapse of talks aimed at ending the standoff.

The collapse of the ceasefire in Najaf came as more than a thousand delegates from across Iraq opened a National Conference in Baghdad seen as key to establishing democracy in the country. Hours after the conference opened, insurgents fired a barrage of mortars that hit a commuter bus station in central Baghdad, scattering shards of glass, shrapnel and blood. There were contradictory reports of death tolls. Police lieutenant Yasser Fawaz said about 10 people were killed and about 15 others injured. Interior Ministry spokesman Col Adnan Abdulrahman said the attack killed one person and injured five others.

The conference aims ultimately to give a broader spectrum of Iraqis a voice in the political process and increase the legitimacy of the interim government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, which is dependent on American troops and money even after the end of the US occupation.

However, the failure to put an end to the uprising in the south by followers of radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr - along with the continued Sunni-led insurgency elsewhere - threatens to undermine the conference. Explosions and gunfire rattled through Najaf yesterday afternoon in clashes centred on the huge cemetery where al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia has been hiding out and fighting running gunbattles with US forces amid the tombs since the violence broke out here August 5.

An explosion, believed to be from a tank round, landed near the outer wall of the compound housing the revered Imam Ali Shrine, the militants' informal headquarters and the holiest Shi'ite site, said Ahmed al-Shaibany, an aide to militant Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

In the morning, US tanks moved toward the centre of town and US military vehicles were seen patrolling the city, which had been quiet since Friday as government officials and the militants tried to negotiate a solution to the crisis.

Government negotiators said on Saturday the three days of talks had been fruitless, but al-Sadr representatives said the sides had agreed on a cease-fire deal before Allawi personally intervened to quash it.

The mortar barrage in Baghdad appeared to target the Green Zone, the fortified enclave where the National Conference opened hours earlier, but hit the station by mistake. About 1,300 religious, political and civic leaders gathered for the unprecedented three-day meeting to discuss political issues and help choose a 100-member national council meant to serve as a watchdog over the country's interim government before elections scheduled for January.

"This conference is not the end of the road for us, it is the first step ... to open up horizons of dialogue," Mr Allawi told the delegates. "Your blessed gathering here is a challenge to the forces of evil and tyranny that want to destroy this country."

Some 70 factions are participating in the conference, though several are boycotting it - including al-Sadr's movement. The goal of the council that the gathering will create is to make Iraqis of all political and religious groups feel they have a voice in the government as the country struggles to enact democratic reforms.

In other violence yesterday, Ukrainian patrol commander Capt Yuriy Ivanov was killed in a land mine explosion near Suwayrah, 25 miles south of Baghdad. Yesterday afternoon, US jet fighters bombed the volatile city of Fallujah. There were no reports of injuries.