Sadr to disarm if US withdraws on timetable

Anti-American Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr would dissolve his Mehdi Army militia if the US started withdrawing troops according to a set timetable, a spokesman said.

A car bomb in the northern town of Tal Afar killed 21 people and wounded 72, police said, an attack that demonstrated the potential for violence that persists in a country that has become far more peaceful over the past year.

Police said the bomb struck a crowded vegetable market. The town is near the city of Mosul, in an area where US-backed Iraqi forces have launched a crackdown on al Qaeda Sunni Arab militants in recent months.

US forces said 15 people were killed and 50 wounded.

Cleric Sadr's decision to link disarming his militia to a US withdrawal comes at a crucial point in talks between Baghdad and Washington over a security pact to provide a legal basis for US troops in Iraq when a UN mandate expires at the end of the year.

US President George W. Bush has refused to set a firm timetable for withdrawing 144,000 American troops from Iraq, but spoke last month of a general "time horizon" for a pullout.

Iraqi negotiators have proposed that US combat troops leave the country by October 2010, although Washington has not yet agreed to it, a senior Iraqi official said yesterday.

If agreed, the timetable would mean the Bush administration effectively adopting a schedule very close to that proposed by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who opposed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

A ceasefire imposed by Cleric Sadr on his militia a year ago has been a major factor in a drop in violence to four-year lows. Cleric Sadr, whose political movement controls 10 per cent of seats in Parliament, has long demanded US troops leave Iraq.

"We feel there's a serious intention by the American forces for a withdrawal timetable at the very least," Cleric Sadr's spokesman Salah al-Ubaidi said before Friday prayers, when the cleric launched a new cultural wing of his movement.

"It should not be considered an end to the Mehdi army, but it's a halfway step to dissolving the Mehdi Army. If the US begin to implement a withdrawal timetable we shall complete the path to dissolution," Mr Ubaidi said.

Mehdi Army street commanders in the Sadr City district of Baghdad welcomed the formation of the cultural arm.

"It is a good step to repair our mistakes, especially sectarianism and sectarian killings. We are very sorry about these sectarian killings, because some parties supported this violence for their own advantage," said commander Abu Sadeq.

The US embassy in Baghdad said in a statement that all illegal armed elements in Iraq must disband to put an end to violence and it called on Sadr "to renounce violence and participate peacefully in the Iraqi political process".

Iraqi government officials say an agreement on a timetable for a US withdrawal is close. But the White House says it is too soon to say when it can pull out its forces.

The issue is politically sensitive in the US ahead of the presidential election in November. Obama has pledged to withdraw all combat troops by mid-2010, while his Republican opponent John McCain refuses to set a date.

The Iraqi proposal would see US forces withdraw from the streets of Iraqi cities by the middle of next year and combat troops return home by October 2010. Some American support units could stay on for another few years, the senior official said.

"As of last night (the schedule) was one of the issues being discussed between the two sides. There is no agreement yet, but this is what the Iraqis are asking for," said the official, who is close to the negotiations.