Iraqi leaders seek to avert US attack

IRAQI leaders launched hurried negotiations yesterday aimed at averting a US assault on the city of Najaf, the location of the holiest Shiite site, the Imam Ali Shrine.

Radical Shiite cleric, Mustaqa al-Sadr, whose al Mahdi army is leading the fierce resistance to the Americans, was photographed leaving the shrine yesterday.

The sons of Iraq's three grand ayatollahs including the most powerful one, Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani met al-Sadr on Monday night in his Najaf office and assured him of their opposition to any American strike.