Rockets hit Baghdad's Sheraton hotel

Two rockets slammed into the Sheraton hotel in central Baghdad yesterday night, temporarily overshadowing a pledge by a Shi'ite Muslim militia to disarm.

Shortly after the rocket blasts, bursts of gunfire echoed across the city centre. A hotel resident said one rocket had hit a first-floor room, a second struck nearby.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the fortified compound containing the Sheraton and the adjacent Palestine hotel, both used by foreign journalists and contractors. A tree was set ablaze outside the Sheraton.

The blasts occurred shortly after a top aide to rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr announced that Shi'ite militiamen would hand over their weapons as part of a peace initiative in Baghdad's Sadr City and other Iraqi hotspots.

The proposed deal, which requires the government's approval, could help calm violence between US forces and Shi'ite rebels ahead of elections due in January, and may pave the way for similar talks with Sunni-led insurgents. The proposal was announced by Ali Smeism, considered Sadr's most senior acolyte, in a live broadcast on Arabic satellite television channel al-Arabiya and came hours after a top Sadr cleric was freed from US detention at Abu Ghraib jail.

Smeism said in return for the arms surrender, the government must make assurances that Sadr's followers are not "persecuted" and more of his aides are freed from US detention.

He said the proposed deal focused on militiamen holed up in the Baghdad slum district of Sadr City, a hotbed of anti-US activity, but could be extended to other "areas of tension".

As well as calling for the release of prisoners and for US forces to back off the militia, Sadr, via his aides, has also indicated he wants the government to pay reparations for damage done by US forces to Sadr City in recent bombing raids.

There was no immediate word from the government or from US military officials on the proposed ceasefire deal.