In Baghdad, however, US officials warned yesterday that the reported stockpiling of weapons in "mosques, shrines and schools" in Najaf could turn such sites into targets for military action.

"The coalition certainly will not tolerate this situation," the US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said in a statement addressed to residents of the city. "The restoration of these holy places to calm places of worship must begin immediately."

u.s. educational model to be implemented in eye-raq: schools as calm places of worship