Iraq's interim government rejected an Iranian proposal to hold regional talks on Najaf standoff on Tuesday, while US-led Iraqi troops have led a fierce assault against Iraqi Shiite militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. 

"It is a domestic matter which must be solved in keeping with the law and sovereignty of the state. That is why Iraq will not join any attempt to internationalize the matter," said Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari at a news conference in Baghdad.

"It is an internal affair between the Iraqi government and the outlaws," he said, referring to Sadr and his Mehdi Army.

Last Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi called for a regional meeting to solve the crisis in Iraq in a telephone conversation with his Jordanian counterpart Marwan Moasher.

Syria has also expressed concern about the situation in Najaf. An official at the Foreign Ministry in Damascus had suggested a regional meeting to discuss the conflict in one of the holiest Shiite Muslim cities in the world.

(Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2004)