Smaisem was referring to a delegation of eight Iraqi dignitaries who visited Najaf last week and were unable to broker a peaceful end to the crisis.

He also said that al-Sadr's followers want to negotiate to protect the pride of their movement.

Earlier, interim Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Sha'alan said Iraqi forces will move Tuesday evening to seal off the Imam Ali Mosque and will use loudspeakers to encourage al-Sadr's supporters to leave.

"We are in the last hours. This evening, Iraqi forces will reach the doors of the shrine and control it and appeal to the Mehdi Army to throw down their weapons," Sha'alan told a news conference, according to Reuters. "If they do not, we will wipe them out."

Iraqi officials have issued similar ultimatums in recent days, threatening to take strong action but then not doing so.

Tuesday's warning came as the most intense fighting in days raged between U.S. forces and members of al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia.

U.S. tanks rolled through the streets around the Shiite Muslim shrine as artillery, machine-gun fire and mortars rattled through the heart of the city. At times, thick black smoke billowed above Najaf's Old City area.

Explosions were heard in rapid succession as a third consecutive night of bombardment by American warplanes commenced shortly before midnight (4 p.m. ET). The strikes appeared to be more intense than last weekend's raids, and the brightly lit dome and minarets of the shrine were wreathed in smoke.

Marine spokeswoman Carrie Batson said troops inside an AC-130 gunship aircraft witnessed members of al-Sadr's Mehdi Army firing a rocket from the shrine compound.

She said she believed the U.S.-led forces must have hit a building containing ammunition, which may have ignited a fire.

"We are doing everything we can to prevent damage to the shrine or holy sites, and with that intent we incorporate into our operational planning extensive measures to safeguard these locations," Batson said.

Najaf Police Chief Ghaleb al-Jazaeri told reporters Monday that his officers had proof that al-Sadr himself had fled Najaf on August 15 and is now in Sulaimaniya, near the Iranian border northeast of Baghdad.

Al-Jazaeri displayed a small piece of paper with handwriting on it that he identified as the proof, but CNN could not independently confirm the report.

An Iraqi judge has issued an arrest warrant for Al-Sadr in connection with the death of a rival cleric -- Ayatollah Abdul Majid al-Khoei -- who was killed outside the Imam Ali Mosque by a mob of al-Sadr's supporters in April 2003.

Al-Sadr's representatives have vowed to vacate the holy site, parts of which date back to the 16th century, as soon as possible after handing it over to Shiite leaders. But they said a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani told them the Shiite leadership would not accept the keys to the shrine until nearby fighting calmed.

Militants inside the mosque also told CNN that Sunni Muslim and tribal leaders had offered to help negotiate a settlement -- an offer they said they accepted -- but the government had not responded.

Car bombs target Iraqi ministers Separate car bombings early Tuesday, apparently targeting two Iraqi ministers, killed five people and wounded four others -- all bodyguards of the officials, police said. A suicide bomber also died in one of the blasts.

Iraqi Education Minister Sami al-Mudhaffar and Environment Minister Miskhat Moumin escaped the attacks unharmed, according to their families.

A convoy was en route to pick up al-Mudhaffar in western Baghdad when one of the bombings took place. The attack killed two of his bodyguards and wounded two others.

About the same time, Moumin was leaving a housing compound in southern Iraq -- where many of Iraq's ministers live -- when the convoy was hit in a suicide car bomb attack, killing three of his bodyguards and wounding two others.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/08/24/iraq.main/index.html