BEIJING, Aug. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr agreed on Wednesday to disarm his militia and leave one of the country's holiest Islamic shrines after warnings of an assaultby government forces.

    But sporadic fighting continued into the night in Najaf and theUS military said it had killed more than 50 militiamen loyal to al-Sadr when it advanced into a Baghdad suburb which is one of his powerbases.

¡¡¡¡TEACH THEM A LESSON THEY WILL NEVER FORGET

    Al-Sadr, whose rebellion poses a major challenge to Iraqi stability, agreed to the pullout hours after the interim government had threatened to storm the Imam Ali Mosque to teach his Mehdi Army militia "a lesson they will never forget."

    "We are in the process of completing all our military preparations ... We will teach them a lesson they will never forget," Iraq's Defense Minister Hazim al-Shaalan said in Najaf. An assault was imminent on the golden-domed mosque, he said after meeting local officials.

    On Wednesday, Iraqi delegates to a conference choosing a national assembly said al-Sadr had agreed to government demands for ending the crisis in the holy city of Najaf, 160 km south of Baghdad.

    "We have just received a letter from Moqtada Sadr's office in Baghdad that confirms 'in the name of God' ... Sadr's acceptance to the conditions imposed by the conference," said Safia al-Suhair,one of the delegates on the peace trip to Najaf.

    An aide of Sadr then announced that Sadr and his followers are ready to leave the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf if the US-led forces stop attacking him first and pull away from the holy site.

    Apart from Sadr leaving the shrine, the delegates demanded Sadr's men lay down their weapons and the cleric and his men disavow violence and participate in elections set for January.

    MIXED REACTION

    The Iraqi government welcomed Sadr's promise to withdraw his forces.

    "Muqtada al-Sadr has accepted the initiative and we are waitingfor its implementation," Hameed al-Kafaei, a government spokesman,told Al-Arabiya television.

    The Bush administration, however, reacted cautiously.

    "I don't think we can trust al-Sadr," said Condoleezza Rice, President George W. Bush's national security adviser. "We have seen many, many times al-Sadr assume or say he is going to accept certain terms and then it turns out not to be the case."

    "The important thing is that the Iraqi government has to run its country," Rice said on the Fox News Channel's "Your World WithNeil Cavuto." "And they understand the threat from Sadr."

    According to the peace plan, Sadr is to disarm his militia and remove them from a holy shrine where they are encamped and limit his participation in public life in Iraq to peaceful use of the political process.

    "Whether al-Sadr accepts that and follows through on that is something that remains to be seen," said State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli.

    There is no indication yet that the militia are withdrawing, Ereli said. "Obviously, we would welcome such a move and it's critical to restoring calm in Najaf."

    As for the mosque of Imam Ali bin Abi Talib, which is regarded by Shiite Muslims as the third holiest site in the world after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, Ereli said, "The US position isthat the mosque is an Iraqi holy site and that the Iraqi government is responsible for its disposition."

    Asked if the United States would withdraw its 138,000 troops from Iraq, a goal of al-Sadr and his followers, Ereli said they would remain and continue to provide security to Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

    FIGHTING RAGES ON

    Gunbattles, explosions and other clashes continued to plague Najaf even after the agreement.

    Sheik Hassan al-Athari, an official at Sadr's Baghdad office, said the cleric wanted to negotiate on how the plan would be implemented and to ensure his militants would not be arrested.

    Al-Sadr aide Ahmed al-Shaibany said US forces must stop attacking before the plan could be implemented.

    "They cannot ask us to disarm while ... they're using warplanes to fight us. There should be a cease-fire first and then they ask us to disarm," he said.

    US forces killed more than 50 Shiite militiamen on Wednesday ina significant advance into a Baghdad suburb that is a powerbase for al-Sadr, the military said.

    Ongoing fighting between US forces and Sadr's militants in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City killed four Iraqis and wounded 24 others,Health Ministry officials said.

    A US officer said soldiers killed "slightly over" 50 Iraqis whowere identified as firing upon the advancing forces. There was no immediate confirmation of the death toll.

    Al-Sadr's loyalists and a combined US -Iraqi force have been fighting for nearly two weeks throughout the holy city, battling in Najaf's vast graveyard and in the streets of its Old City.

    A wall surrounding the Imam Ali Shrine, where the militants have holed up, was reportedly chipped in the fighting, and any damage to the mosque itself would infuriate the world's 120 million Shiite Muslims.

    On Thursday, Al Jazeera television reported that Iraqi militants who said they captured a US journalist last week have threatened to kill him if US forces do not pull out of the holy city of Najaf.

    NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CHOSEN

    Despite the violence in Najaf, the Iraqi national conference, agathering of more than 1,000 prominent Iraqis, picked an interim national assembly on Wednesday evening.

    The 100-seat Iraqi interim parliament, or the National Assembly,is supposed to oversee the current government of Prime Minister Allawi and pave the way for the country's first elections in the coming January.

    Waleed Shaltah, a senior member of the organizing committee of the national conference, announced at the end of the conference that a list of 81 candidates was accepted as members of the interim national assembly and the rest 19 seats were reserved for members of the already disbanded Iraqi Governing Council.

    The assembly will also be able to veto legislation with a two-thirds majority, approve the 2005 budget and appoint a new prime minister or president should either quit or die in office. Enditem