All is quiet in Najaf - for now

By Alastair Leithead BBC correspondent in Najaf

The area surrounding the holy shrine of Imam Ali has been largely quiet since first light.

The odd skirmish breaks an eerie calm after a night of rocket fire

The lilting, rhythmic sound of the call to Friday prayers drifts through the empty streets, accompanied from time to time by bursts of rifle fire.

Earlier, we went out into the streets of the ancient city, pushing forward as far as we could safely. We got within a kilometre of the shrine.

US tanks and armoured cars were patrolling the narrow streets.

The biggest danger is from the snipers - certainly to us, but also to residents in the area.

A lot of people have moved out of the old city, looking for a safer place.

'Terrifying'

We were called into the homes of a couple of people who described the bombardment carried out by the Americans overnight.

Tanks reportedly advanced after a night of heavy bombardment

They said it was pretty terrifying and there was a lot of fighting.

We were not able to get close enough to see the shrine - where Moqtada al-Sadr and his militia are based - for ourselves.

Pictures in the last few days show some signs of damage to the shrine - one of the most important to Shia Muslims - but it is not necessarily recent.

Rockets have been getting closer, but obviously the shrine is an area that the US and Iraqi forces have been careful to avoid, because of the ramifications it would have around the Shia Muslim world.

Talk of deals

The bombardment overnight is the heaviest seen here in two weeks of fighting - and one of the heaviest since the end of the war.

The Health Ministry says 77 people were killed and 71 injured, but a true, exact figure is impossible to know.

Moqtada Sadr's positions were buffeted just hours after the prime minister gave his final offer of a peaceful solution - a reminder, perhaps, of the US firepower which is backing up his rhetoric.

The talk of deals, agreements and negotiations continues. A Sadr spokesman offered to give the keys of the Imam Ali shrine to the highest Shia religious authority in the land.

But word from the mosque is: the fighting would go on.

Is it just talk? It is difficult to know.

Behind the increasing violence, there is a war of words that still seems to be going nowhere.