"Talks to End Fighting in Baghdad Stall"

[GreenPartyVoter]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Talks to end fighting between U.S. forces and Shiite militants in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City have stalled, with the government refusing militant demands for American troops to keep out of the troubled district, negotiators for the militants said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for a Kuwaiti trucking company said seven employees who had been kidnapped in Iraq are free and headed to Kuwait. She gave no details about the circumstances of the release. The three Kenyans, three Indians and one Egyptian were abducted July 21. The kidnappers had repeatedly changed their demands and extended deadlines set for killing the seven.

Also Wednesday, Iraq's 100-member National Council, intended to act as a government watchdog and help shepherd the nation to elections scheduled for January, was convened for the first time as a nearby mortar barrage injured one person.

Naim al-Kaabi, a spokesman for rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, said a tentative agreement was initially reached Monday with government negotiators on a six-point proposal that would have barred American troops from entering Sadr City without Iraqi government permission.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040901/D84QS4OG0.html