Sadr peace deal could bolster Iraq election plan

A Shi'ite militia led by Moqtada al-Sadr agreed yesterday to disarm under a deal that could pacify a Baghdad flashpoint and remove one obstacle to Iraq's plan to hold nationwide elections in January.

Sadr's militia has staged two uprisings against US and Iraqi forces this year. An insurgency by Sunni Muslim rebels still rages in large swathes of central and northern Iraq. Karim al-Bakhati, negotiating for people in Baghdad's Sadr City district, told Reuters US forces had promised to stop bombarding the vast Shi'ite slum area with immediate effect.

Bakhati said US Ambassador John Negroponte and an unidentified US colonel had been present when he reached the accord with Iraqi government officials. A government source confirmed that a deal had been struck at the talks. "Everything is agreed. Sadr's movement will hand over their weapons," he said, but gave no details.

It was not immediately clear if the militia loyal to the youthful Sadr, a fiercely anti-American Shi'ite cleric, intended to disarm only in Sadr City or in other parts of Iraq as well. Talks were also under way on a peace deal for Falluja, said to be a haven for foreign militants led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose group killed British hostage Kenneth Bigley on Thursday.

Kidnappers struck again yesterday, seizing a Turkish truck driver identified as Halil Oglu and wounding his colleague near Baiji, 180 km north of Baghdad, police said. Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi says his government is not negotiating with rebels in Sadr City, Falluja and other troublespots, but says insurgents can be amnestied if they surrender weapons and make way for Iraqi security forces. Allawi, backed by US and British forces, wants to regain control of all rebel-held areas before the elections. Rampant violence has raised doubts about the feasibility of the polls. Plans for a population census due to have been conducted this month have been scrapped, Iraqi officials said. Voters will now produce their food ration cards to enable them to vote.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was meeting counterparts from 18 other nations on a US aircraft-carrier in the Gulf, said Iraqi security forces could grow by 40,000 to around 180,000 and the Pentagon might send more troops to Iraq before the polls.

Iraqi negotiators had no word on any progress towards arranging the return of Iraqi security forces to Falluja.