Hundreds of people died in the fighting, including members of Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.
"If you enter Najaf you will see it similar to Stalingrad during the Second World War," said Ghurayfi, who repeatedly evoked the image of Iraq as a tent big enough for all factions. "So let us agree on one word: We should be tolerant with one another." The room swelled with applause.
Muhammed Bahr Uloum, left, a cleric and member of the interim National Council, arrives at the body's opening session.
(Karim Sahib -- AP)
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Sadr's representatives said they also wanted to avoid more fighting. Several of the cleric's aides said a nationwide cease-fire remained in effect while negotiations with Iraqi officials continued on the specifics of converting Sadr's following from an armed insurgency to a peaceful political movement, a crucial step to restoring calm in Iraq's mostly Shiite south.
Both sides said the talks hit a bump this week when Sadr insisted on applying the rules of the Najaf peace deal to Sadr City, a Baghdad slum where Sadr's Mahdi Army militia has repeatedly clashed with U.S. patrols. Sadr's side wants U.S. forces barred from the slum except for reconstruction work, "or by permission of the government. This shows high respect to the government," said Ali Yassiri of Sadr's political office.
Iraqi officials rejected that proposal, but both sides said negotiations would continue.
"We are ready and the door is open," said Abdul Hadi Darraji, another Sadr aide. "The cease-fire is still valid until we announce the political role we intend to play soon."
Another sticking point focuses on how to disarm the militia. Ahmed Shaibani, another Sadr aide, said militia members should be allowed to keep weapons for personal defense "and join the civilian community."
A council member sympathetic to Sadr said the punishing battles in Najaf did much to bring the rebels around.
"They found that if they continue being violent critics, they will have lost a lot of their young people, and this fighting in their cities and destroying Iraq would continue and reconstruction would stop," said Salama Khufaji, a former Governing Council member whose son was killed when her convoy came under attack in May. "That's why the Sadr following began to feel this way."
Correspondent Rajiv Chandrasekaran and special correspondent Omar Fekeiki contributed to this report.
