(in full) After months of bitterness, the heads of the seven major tribes of Fallujah have met for the first time with the Iraqi town's mayor and its American forces commander.

Clan leaders and their hangers-on packed the mayor's office at the morning meeting, described by Lt-Col Chris Hickey, US army Fallujah commander, as "an extremely important day".

They came from the Albuaisa tribe, from the al-Jumela and from the al-Halabsa. They greeted the sheikhs of the al-Mahamuda tribe, the Albu al-Wan, the al-Zuba'a and Albuaisa-Qais.

At a rowdy session, they agreed to work with American troops to stamp out the looting as well as the rocket and grenade attacks, that have made Fallujah a byword for instability and danger.

The success of the operation is thought to have influenced America's new found willingness to consider a softer approach elsewhere in Iraq. Colin Powell, secretary of state, and Gen Ricardo Sanchez, coalition forces commander, both conceded this week that military heavy-handedness in Iraq was breeding local resentment against US forces.

American troops were given a reminder on Tuesday of the daily attacks they used to face when a rocket-propelled grenade crashed into Fallujah's police station and injured two Iraqi officers.

"It wasn't aimed at us though," said an Iraqi policeman in Fallujah yesterday. "Someone was trying to kill the Americans nearby."

Despite the attack, everyone in Fallujah agrees that the situation has improved since American soldiers arrived.

After the war, US troops were seen as invaders, not liberators. In several protests in May, US soldiers fired on demonstrators who had gathered around their base, killing 18. Since then, however, a military rethink has improved relations with the local community.

US forces withdrew from their fixed checkpoints in the town, effectively handing it over to the local police force.

Lt-Col Hickey also said that US raids into houses in Fallujah, once a major point of friction with locals, are less frequent and less heavyhanded than before.

"We launched a raid on a bad tip recently and so we apologised. I later wrote a formal letter of apology to the owner of the house we stormed," he said.

US troops have also picked up other local rules. "They now pay blood money," said Taha Bdewi Hamid AlAlwani, Fallujah's mayor, yesterday. "If they mistakenly kill someone, they pay the victim's family $2,000. For an injury, it is $500."

Mayor Al-Alwani has proved the key to bridging the cultural divide between local tribal leaders and the Americans.

Nominated by the sheikhs, his election was later confirmed by the coalition and, unlike many politicians in post-Saddam Iraq, he has managed to avoid accusations of being a US stooge.

"It is a very difficult equation to be trusted by both sides," he said. "But the tribes know me and they see that I can make the Americans respond to their requests."

On the streets, those demands are the same in Fallujah as everywhere else in Iraq: security, electricity and running water.

Through the intermediary of the mayor, however, the tribes can now hold the American troops accountable for improvements in infrastructure without resorting to heavy weaponry.

"The mayor convinced us to work with the Americans," said Talib al-Hasnawi, brother of the sheikh of the Albuaisa tribe, Khamis al-Hasnawi.

"Now this council will meet every Wednesday and each time the Americans will have to answer our demands from the week before." On the base 10 miles outside Fallujah to which American troops have withdrawn, Lt-Col Hickey is already preparing his answers for next week.

"I understand they want power," he said. "And it will take too long to plug the town into the network so I'm working to get two 20 megawatt generators here. They will soon power the whole town."

Back in Fallujah such improvements could help to dissolve further the fog or mutual misunderstanding and mistrust that once reigned. "The Americans are really beginning to work for us," said Mayor Al-Alnawi.

"Here they have learned an important lesson which could be useful for them all over Iraq. Everywhere, commanders should tell the soldiers: learn from Fallujah."