U.S. Tries to Quell Al-Sadr's Uprising by Recruiting Militia

``If the militia dissolves tomorrow what I've got is 600 unemployed young men on my hands; some of those are probably decent, who have been led astray,'' said Dempsey at a press briefing televised from Baghdad.

Dempsey's offer came amid signs of a weakening in the uprising. Anti-U.S. Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr today offered to end his insurgency against the U.S.-led coalition in return for negotiations, Agence France-Presse reported. About 1,000 people marched in the holy city of Najaf today, calling on al-Sadr and his militia to leave, said the Associated Press.

As demonstrators passed al-Sadr's office, his Mahdi Army fighters fired their weapons into the air. No one was hurt in the exchange, AP reported. Al-Sadr's offer to end the insurgency was contained in leaflets handed out in Najaf, AFP said.

Dempsey said he is trying to copy a technique used in northern Iraq, where his division formed a civil defense battalion by recruiting young Iraqis from different tribes and political parties to create a new unit with no particular political identity.

Former al-Sadr militia members, vetted by tribal leaders and trained by the U.S., could be formed into 10-man squads by the end of June, Dempsey said. The U.S.-led coalition is scheduled to transfer power to a new Iraqi government on June 30.

``We will be looking for leaders among the young men we get,'' which could include al-Sadr militia if they are not under indictment on criminal charges, Dempsey said.

The U.S. has said al-Sadr must turn himself in on an arrest warrant issued by an Iraqi judge over the murder of a rival cleric last April, which may complicate any negotiations with the cleric.

``The problem that Muqtada al-Sadr has is that he's indicted,'' Dempsey said. ``And therefore, it's not my position to negotiate with him.''

Dempsey said he's ``looking for political parties to give up their young men to me, allow me to form them into a security force that works on behalf of all the Iraqi people and not just their particular political party.''

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