Shia militiamen handed in some weapons in the first few hours of a five-day disarmament plan that the interim government hopes will defuse the Baghdad flashpoint of Sadr City.
Iraqi police at one of three designated arms collection points in the sprawling slum district said they had received only a handful of weapons from Sadr's Mehdi Army militia so far.
Police at another collection point said no weapons had been turned over there.
Police at the Habibiya station allowed cameramen to film only one batch of arms they said had been brought earlier in a civilian car. The display included rocket-propelled grenades, rusty artillery shells, landmines and assault rifles.
A militia source said earlier that militiamen were awaiting orders from their leader Moqtada al-Sadr, who is based in the southern city of Najaf, to start turning over their weapons under a deal reached with Iraq's interim government on Saturday.
The agreement by the Mehdi Army to disarm in its Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City could restore calm in the impoverished area on the northeast edge of Baghdad which has seen fierce clashes with US forces in recent weeks.
"We have gathered our weapons. We are waiting for the final word to hand them over," the Sadr militia source said.
The youthful cleric's fighters were due to hand in heavy weapons at three collection points - the town council building and two police stations - under the deal.
The US-backed government aims to retake control of rebel-held areas throughout Iraq by political or military means ahead of national assembly elections due in January.
Militiamen in Sadr City will have five days to hand in their weapons, National Security Adviser Kassim Daoud said yesterday, adding that the government would spend more than $500 million on reconstruction in the slums where two million Shias live.
Mr Daoud said Iraq's police and National Guard would play a role in Sadr City under the deal and reserved the right to seek support from US-led troops to maintain security.
The government said the Sadr City accord was a good chance for "all misled armed groups in Iraq to rejoin civil society".
Peace talks are also under way to try to resolve a standoff in the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Falluja, west of Baghdad, held by insurgents since a failed US assault in April.
But violence continued today with the death of two US soldiers in a rocket attack in southern Baghdad. The deaths raised to at least 816 the number of US soldiers killed since the US led war to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein began last year.