Fallouja Pullout May Be in Works

The accord -- which would bring an end to the Marines' nearly monthlong siege of this restive town -- came as the Iraqi people and U.S. officials braced for a military offensive against as many as 2,000 insurgents in house-to-house combat.

There was considerable confusion about the deal, word of which was apparently leaked in Fallouja before top U.S. officials in Baghdad and Washington had a chance to review the terms. U.S. officials in Washington denied that an agreement had been struck to avoid a military assault on Fallouja.

The deal announced by the Marines here calls for Fallouja to be patrolled by an all-Iraqi force headed by a former general under Saddam Hussein .

The agreement came on a day when 10 more U.S. troops were reported killed in Iraq, bringing April's unofficial death toll to at least 125 -- and making it by far the bloodiest month for American forces since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq last spring.

If a Fallouja deal sticks -- details of the agreement remained sketchy late Thursday -- it would probably reduce tension throughout the country as the U.S. prepares to grant sovereignty to Iraq on June 30. The intense recent fighting in Fallouja, which has killed many Iraqi civilians, has made the city a potent symbol of anti-American sentiment.

Thousands of Marines laid siege to Fallouja a few days after the March 31 killing and mutilation of four American contract workers, whose bodies were torched and dragged through the streets. U.S. officials have insisted that those responsible for the killings be turned over. It is unknown if the agreement addresses that demand.

A crucial part of the deal calls for the new Iraqi unit to disarm the insurgents, by force if necessary.

It remained unclear how this would be achieved, since Marines have been unable to accomplish it during weeks of broken cease-fires. Since the fall of Hussein, guerrillas in Fallouja have regularly attacked and killed members of U.S.-trained Iraqi police and Iraqi Civil Defense Corps units.

Under the agreement, Marine officials said, U.S. forces would withdraw from the city but remain in rural areas outside town. Marines control less than half of Fallouja, which is in the nation's most volatile region, west of Baghdad.