Sadr aide warns of Najaf clashes

Fighters who follow Moqtada Sadr say they will resist any attack

A spokesman for radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr says there is little hope for a peaceful end to the stand-off in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf.

Qais el-Ghazali said talks between Mr Sadr's supporters and US forces had brought no agreement.

He said US-led forces were preparing to strike Najaf and that the cleric's supporters would take all measures necessary to protect themselves.

US forces say have so far respected Shia calls not to attack the city.

A senior member of the al-Dawah party, Adnan Ali, who is mediating between US forces and Mr Sadr, told the BBC the negotiations were being held up because too many people were meddling in them.

Border clashes

As the talks continued there were reports of further unrest, this time in the town of Qaim near the Syrian border.

A reporter from the St Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper embedded with coalition forces said US marines have been fighting pitched battles with about 300 gunmen in the town.

According to the journalist, at least five marines were killed and nine wounded in a 14-hour battle in which more than 20 Iraqi fighters were captured.

The US military has not confirmed the report.

Elsewhere, US officials said one soldier died and two others were wounded by an an anti-tank mine near the northern city of Tikrit on Friday.

Homeward bound

Three Japanese former hostages are on their way back to their home country.

The Japanese men said they had been well treated

The two men and a woman, who were held for a week by militants who threatened to burn them alive, were released from hospital in Dubai to catch a flight to Japan.

Iraqi militants freed two other Japanese hostages on Saturday, a day after a captured US soldier was shown on video surrounded by his armed kidnappers.

The two Japanese, taken on Wednesday, said they had been well treated.

But there has been no further information on the fate of the US soldier, whose identity was confirmed by his family as Private Keith Matthew Maupin.

He disappeared along with seven US contractors when their fuel convoy came under attack on 9 April.

Fears have grown for the fate of foreign hostages since the killing of Italian Fabrizio Quattrocchi on Wednesday.

US President George Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed to stamp out violence in Iraq, where US-led forces are battling militants in mainly Sunni central Iraq and trying to stop a revolt by a Shia militia in the south.

The US military said there had been a "significant drop in attacks" in Baghdad, but a Sudanese citizen was killed in a mortar attack there and roads were closed north and south of the city.

There was calm in Falluja, west of Baghdad, where clashes have punctuated a truce over the last few days.

But US army Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt, deputy head of operations in Iraq, told reporters he expected anti-coalition violence in the area to continue.