Fallujah truce extended indefinitely: Mediator

"We have reached a new deal that extended the ceasefire indefinitely and secured an agreement on several new points," said Hashim al-Hassani of the Iraq Islamic Party.

He said the deal includes a ban on carrying weapons as of Tuesday and the start of joint patrols of Iraqi police and Iraqi Civil Defence Corps forces and coalition troops in the city on the same day.

Tap Here to Add The Daily Star As A Trusted Source

Hassani said the deal calls for "continuing the gathering of heavy weapons" from insurgents and allowing families to return to Fallujah and facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The Sunni Iraq Islamic Party is represented on the US-appointed Governing Council.

A senior coalition military official only confirmed that talks on Friday night would allow the return of 67 families to Fallujah today.

US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for the US-led coalition, said Friday that insurgents in Fallujah were not honouring the truce and that this may force US marines to go back on the offensive.

"We will continue to talk ... (but) our patience is not eternal. The coalition is prepared to act," he said.

The New York Times reported Sunday that US President George W. Bush and his senior national security and military advisers are expected to decide this weekend whether to order an invasion of Fallujah.

The paper also reported that US Secretary of Defence Donald H. Rumsfeld has "expressed strong doubts that the Fallujah political and business figures the Americans are talking to hold any sway over the insurgents."

Meanwhile, US commanders are under mounting pressure to increase troop levels in Iraq but the superpower army and its reserves are already stretched, experts say.

The US Defence Department has extended by 90 days the tours of 20,000 soldiers in Iraq and offered to find new troops to keep the deployment at 135,000, if the military deems it necessary.