BAGHDAD -- American officials agreed yesterday to a truce in the resistance city of Fallujah, the center of fighting in the deadliest month for US soldiers since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

The agreement between US occupation officials, Marines, and Fallujah leaders marks the first time that the military has openly negotiated to end a battle with guerrilla fighters in Iraq, but it is not clear whether the Fallujah officials have direct control over the insurgents using the city as a base.

The terms of the tentative agreement call for Iraqi fighters to turn in their weapons and for the return of US patrols to the city center, where they have rarely set foot in the last year.

The United States made many concessions in the proposed settlement, which was announced by US officials yesterday and detailed by negotiators from the Iraqi Islamic Party. Shuttle diplomacy for more than a week brought senior US negotiators and Fallujah leaders to the table for direct discussions.

"We are trying to use peaceful negotiations to try to bring the situation in Fallujah to an end," said Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt. "But there's also a very clear understanding inside that agreed statement that should this agreement not bear fruit that the Marine forces out there are more than prepared to continue offensive operations."[...]

...The Fallujah agreement marks a victory for civilian authorities in the US-led occupation authority, who sought a negotiated settlement rather than a continuation of the all-out war in the city. The fighting this month has killed dozens of US troops and as many as 600 Iraqis, according to hospital sources and wire reports.

The United States agreed not to prosecute people who turn in their weapons, and not to hold the Fallujah delegation that negotiated the agreement responsible for individuals who break the cease-fire terms. American negotiators yielded to the wishes of Fallujah's leaders, agreeing to draw from local residents to reconstitute the Iraqi police and civil defense corps in the area, which proved ineffective in curbing guerrilla fighting in the past year.

Until now, American officials have stressed that Iraq's new security services serve the entire country and that local communities cannot insist that the people patrolling them be residents of their own towns. In the statement, they retreated from that principle. Fallujah's police and civil defense corps will be overhauled on an "urgent basis," and will be "bolstered and improved."

The statement added, "They will be formed primarily from residents of Fallujah, who are best placed to guarantee security in the city."

Sunni politicians who brokered the talks said they detected tensions during the negotiations between US military officials, who wanted to destroy the resistance fighters with force, and civilian leaders in the Coalition Provisional Authority, who wanted a peaceful settlement.

"World public opinion helped us a lot to put pressure on the American military side. As for the civilian side, they were convinced from the very first days; they had difficulty convincing the military" that a settlement could be negotiated, said Riyadh al-Falahi, a spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party.

Islamic Party members saw the negotiations as a turning point in the relationship between US authorities and Iraqi politicians. The United States was under pressure to turn to Iraqis for help, and heed their calls for a solution that left Fallujah's leaders with their honor and tribal authority intact.

"It was hard to convince the US to stop military operations against people whom they consider as terrorists," Falahi said.

Fallujah's delegation dropped many of their initial demands, including a full US withdrawal from the city and reparations for all Iraqi dead and wounded. But they won some symbolic victories.

US officials agreed to make the town's curfew start later, at 9 p.m. instead of 7 p.m., so as not to interfere with evening prayers. And they promised to allow free movement for ambulances and free access to hospitals and cemeteries.

That measure appeared to contradict earlier statements by US military officials, including Kimmitt, who had insisted that Fallujah residents already had unimpeded access to the city's general hospital. Islamic Party negotiators said that US Marines were stationed in the hospital, and that residents were having trouble reaching it because Marines controlled a bridge that separates the hospital from the center of town.

Under the agreement, refugees will be allowed to return to the city through the military cordon, beginning with 50 families today.

Ambassador Richard Jones, the number two American official in Iraq, represented the occupation authority in the negotiations. The Fallujah delegation included political, civic, and professional leaders, according to occupation authority spokesman Dan Senor. It is still unknown whether the delegation exerts any meaningful control over the fighters that have made Fallujah one of the most dangerous places in Iraq for American troops over the past year.

"While we are hopeful about the intentions of the Fallujah delegation, . . . we also recognize that there is a big question about whether or not they can deliver, and that remains to be seen," Kimmitt said...