BASRA, Iraq, Aug 25 (AFP) - Iraqi ministers and members of the national assembly held talks Wednesday with the country`s top Shiite Muslim cleric on the Najaf conflict, a source close to the ayatollah`s representative in Basra said.
The talks took place at the Basra villa of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani`s representative in the city, Ali al-Safi, where the cleric was resting before heading on to Najaf in the morning, said the source.
More than 50 British soldiers guarded the building amid top-notch security, said an AFP correspondent.
The British military said the Iraqi interim government had requested a multinational troop presence to provide security for their summit with Sistani.
A Sistani spokesman told AFP that the ayatollah wanted foreign troops to leave Najaf, Iraqi police to take responsibility for security and the government to pay compensation to those who have suffered in the fighting.
The city must be rid of all weapons and preparations must also begin in earnest for the elections scheduled for January 2005.
At the request of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, minister of state Kassem Daoud and minister of state for the provinces Wael Abdel Latif flew into the main southern city to meet the Iranian-born cleric, the source told AFP.
They were accompanied by members of the newly elected parliament, including Sheikh Hussein al-Sadr, a distant relative of Moqtada Sadr, who led a national conference peace delegation to Najaf last week.
"The talks were positive and valuable and soon you will be hearing something cheerful," Sadr told AFP.
"Grand Ayatollah Sistani is to offer an initiative as soon as he`s in Najaf," he added.
A senior Shiite official has said the cleric, seen as a moderating influence, has a three-point plan to address the crisis.
Sistani rushed back from abroad Wednesday to "save Najaf", an aide said, after US forces smashed militia defences to trap hundreds of Sadr supporters in the city`s shrine.
Sistani was treated to a euphoric welcome after crossing the Kuwaiti border on his way home from London, where he travelled for medical treatment just as the Najaf fighting began three weeks ago.
Tens of thousands from Baghdad and southern Iraq pledged to answer the Iranian-born ayatollah`s call to march on the besieged holy city of Najaf in a mission to resolve the crisis peacefully.