BAGHDAD, Oct. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- A radical Shiite militia agreed on Saturday to hand in weapons and suspend attacks against US and Iraqi forces, as the government has tried to use carrots and sticks to curb a mounting insurgency throughout the country.

   A senior aide to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said that the Mehdi Army in Baghdad's Sadr City will start to hand over heavy and medium weapons to Iraqi police and the Iraqi National Guard on Monday.

   As an exchange, the government side pledged to release militiamen, offer amnesty, pay war reparations and provide financial assistance for the reconstruction of the sprawling neighborhood, said Abdul al-Hadi al-Daraji, Sadr's top representative in Baghdad.

   The announcement was the most positive sign after rounds of talks and it came only after the US troops promised to stop attacking the militia in the Shiite slum, according to Daraji.

   On Thursday, Sadr's militia offered to disarm if the government stopped fighting the militia, released detainees, paid war reparations and provided financial assistance for the reconstruction of the Sadr City.

   In a positive response to the proposal, the government said Friday it would honour its pledge to afford equal and fair treatment to all and to offer amnesty to those who have not committed crimes against the Iraqi people.

   The government also suggested other militant groups follow the suit to lay down arms.

   The hand-in process in the Sadr City, which is supposed to lastfive days, will be the first crucial test for the tentative initiative aiming at ending weeks of skirmishes.

   The neighborhood has been witnessing almost daily clashes between US-Iraqi forces and Shiite militia, while fighting also raged in other cities, mostly in central northern Iraq, known as the Sunni triangle.

   A delegation from Fallujah, one of the rebel bastions in thetriangle, said on Saturday it had to postpone the latest round of peace talks with the government.

   Sheikh Abdul al-Hamid Jabua, a cleric in the delegation, told Xinhua that they travelled to Baghdad to discuss with the Defense Minister on the entry of Iraqi troops into the town, but thedelegation was told that the minister was not in the capital. Hedidn't mention when the next meeting would be.

   Fallujah, 50 km west of Baghdad, has been a scene of nearlydaily air strikes the US military said were targeting militanthideouts, but local citizens complained that women and children were often among the innocent civilians killed in the operations.

   Another Fallujah delegation Saturday met with US Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte, who promised them to encourage the Iraqi government to solve the confrontation in a peaceful way.

   Early Saturday, a clash between insurgents and US forces eruptedin east Ramadi, killing one Iraqi and wounding several others.

   The battle, which took place in the industrial district,followed US artillery shelling last night, said local residents.

   Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has pledged to wrest back suchrestive cities such as Fallujah and Ramadi from insurgents' hand to pave the way for the elections slated for January 2005.

   Elsewhere, rebels launched a mortar attack at the Green Zone incentral Baghdad on Saturday, but causing no casualties. At least one mortar round exploded near the US and British embassies, and smoke could be seen rising above the compound at about 1:45 p.m.(1045 GMT).

   Meanwhile, the insurgents have continued to launch the hostage campaign. A Turkish truck driver was kidnapped in northern Iraq while another one was wounded on Saturday, said the Iraqi police.

   The Turks were driving an oil tanker when they stopped by unknown armed men near Baiji, an oil hub 180 km north of Baghdad.The Turkish embassy did not confirm the report.

   Truck drivers having contracts with the US-led multinational force have been an easy target in the wave of kidnapping. Tens of drivers have been killed by captors, most of them Turks.

   The latest case came after British hostage Kenneth Bigley was beheaded by a group led by the al-Qaida linked terrorist Abu Mussabal-Zarqawi.

   Abu Dhabi TV channel claimed it received a video tape picturing Bigley's decapitating, but said it will not serve as the "mouthpiece" for the group to release it. The British embassy in Iraq said his body was not found.

   while the government is trying hard to curb the mounting insurgency, a positive sign of the efforts in rooting out trouble-makers as Iraqi police and US military foiled a car bomb attack in Mosul, 400 km north of Baghdad.

   Meanwhile, three suspects believed to have been planning suicide attacks were detained in Tikrit, it was reported.  Enditem