IRAQ: Iraq's interim government will declare a nationwide arms amnesty next week, but insists the city of Falluja must turn in foreign militants or face assault, National Security Adviser Kassim Daoud said yesterday.
Mr Daoud would not be drawn on the timing of a Falluja offensive if the city did not hand over militants led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, America's top enemy in Iraq.
"We have a timetable and we will stick to it," he told Reuters.
Addressing Iraqi lawmakers, interim Prime Minister Mr Iyad Allawi confirmed the nationwide arms handover, a plan that, depending on its success, could point to the government's ability to organise nationwide polls by the end of January.
US forces released Falluja's chief negotiator, whom they detained on Friday, after battles and air strikes on the edge of the rebel-held Sunni Muslim stronghold west of Baghdad.
The interim government has vowed to crack down on insurgents and pacify Iraq before the January election.
In a country awash with guns, Iraqis are permitted one AK-47 per household and handguns are largely overlooked. But many families possess more than one weapon.
It was unclear whether money would be exchanged for weapons under the new amnesty. Previous gun amnesties since last year's US-led invasion of Iraq have involved heavier weapons.
Mr Daoud said a cash-for-weapons scheme already under way in Baghdad's Sadr City district, a stronghold for Shi'ite militants, had been extended to Thursday.
Mr Allawi said the extension, the second so far, would be the last.
Mr Daoud said many people still wanted to disarm in Sadr City. "It would not be fair to search houses now when these people have not had enough time to turn over their weapons."
Loyalists of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had been fighting US troops in Sadr City before the arms handover was agreed.
Falluja, a hotbed of Sunni insurgency, is an even tougher challenge for the interim government and its US backers.
Residents said Falluja was relatively quiet after Sunday's fierce battles, in which hospital officials said four civilians were killed and 12 wounded. A child was among the dead.
Meanwhile, a militant group in Iraq said it had killed two Macedonian hostages it accused of spying for the US, Arabic television Al Jazeera reported yesterday.
Al Jazeera said it had received a video tape showing the killing of the two men accompanied by a statement from the Islamic Army in Iraq stating it had seized the men a few days ago as they were leaving a US base.
But Macedonian television said the hostages were among a group of three men kidnapped in August.