Shiite leaders demand al-Sadr withdraw

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Representatives of Iraq's most influential Shiite leaders met here on Tuesday and demanded that Moqtada al-Sadr, a rebel Shiite cleric, withdraw militia units from the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, stop turning the mosques there into weapons arsenals and return power to Iraqi police and civil defense units that operate under U.S. control.

The Shiite leaders also called, in speeches and in interviews after the meeting, for a rapid return to the U.S.-led negotiations on Iraq's political future. The negotiations have been sidelined for weeks by the upsurge in violence associated with al-Sadr's uprising across central and southern Iraq and the simultaneous fighting in Fallujah, the Sunni Muslim city west of Baghdad.

On Tuesday, the Shiite leaders, including a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani, effectively did what the Americans have urged them to do since al-Sadr, a 31-year-old firebrand, began his attacks in April: They tied Iraq's future, and that of Shiites in particular, to a renunciation of violence and a return to negotiations. They did so in the capital, Baghdad, with more participants than they have had in the past.

While they did not present a specific plan, the Shiites, who included tribal figures as well as representatives of religious and secular groups, many from Najaf and Karbala, said time was running out for talks on a transitional government to take power when the American occupation authority returns sovereignty to Iraq on June 30. The talks will involve a prominent role for the United Nations, whose envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, is due to return to Iraq soon to work with the Americans and Iraqi groups on naming a government of nonpolitical figures to lead the country to elections at the end of the year.

The statement issued by the leaders also involved a warning to American troops not to enter Najaf and Karbala in pursuit of al-Sadr and his militia, a position Shiite leaders have repeatedly emphasized.

Although American military commanders have hinted at an offensive soon against against Sadr's force in the south, the Mahdi Army, they have repeatedly said that they do not intend to attack inside Najaf or Karbala; they have made no similar undertaking in respect of Kufa, a smaller city six miles northeast of Najaf, also with a mosque widely revered among Shiites, where Sadr appears to have established his main militia headquarters.