Iraqi troops were set early Wednesday for an attack on a key shrine in Najaf, while in Washington an outside panel blamed leadership failures at the top levels of the Pentagon for the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

Hundreds of Iraqi troops were seen fanning out across the Old City around the shrine late Tuesday. There was no sign of a final ground push but Iraqi troops came within 400 meters of the shrine,and roads around it were sealed off.

Defense Minister Hazim al-Shalaan said the Mehdi Army fighters loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr would face death unless they ended their rebellion.

"We are in the last hours. This evening, Iraqi forces will reach the doors of the shrine and control it and appeal to the Mehdi Army to throw down their weapons," he said. "If they do not,we will wipe them out."

Sadr aide Ali Smeisim told reporters in Najaf the Mehdi Army was willing to hold talks to end the fighting. "We are ready to negotiate to put an end to the suffering," Ali Smeisim said in Najaf.

The Iraqi advance was backed by US helicopters which fired missiles and strafed militants dug in at a cemetery near the mosque, where most of the fighters have holed up during the three-week uprising in the city. Meanwhile, US tanks reinforced positions along the southern flank of the mosque.

In Baghdad, insurgents tried to assassinate Iraq's environment and education ministers in separate bombings that killed five of their bodyguards and wounded more than a dozen people.

Environment Minister Mishkat Moumin survived a suicide car bombattack on her convoy in Baghdad. Education Minister Sami al-Mudhaffar was unhurt after a roadside bomb hit his convoy in the city.

A group linked to al-Qaida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the attempt on Moumin and said it would not miss next time. The attacks were the latest attempts to kill officials in the government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

Meanwhile, in Washington, an outside panel found that leadership failures at the top levels of the Pentagon contributed to a chaotic environment in which detainees were abused at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

The panel, which investigated operations at US military prisonsin Iraq, Afghanistan and Cuba, cited leadership shortcomings amongthe Joint Chiefs of Staff and the military command in Iraq for failures that resulted in naked detainees being abused.

In Rome, the Italian government insisted it would maintain its 3,000 troops in Iraq despite an ultimatum from an Islamist group holding an Italian journalist demanding that Rome withdraw its forces within 48 hours.

The Italian appeared alone on a video tape and identified himself as Enzo Baldoni.

In Stockholm, the embassies in the city of several countries with a military presence in Iraq recently received threatening letters in Arabic.

The Swedish media reported the Philippine embassy has received a fax, threatening to take retaliatory action against the United States and other 33 countries which have occupation troops in Iraq.

The Australian embassy has also received a letter of threat, which was written in Arabic.

Source: Xinhua