The Vatican has offered to mediate to avoid further bloodshed and destruction in the besieged Shia holy city of Najaf, stronghold of rebel leader Moqtada Sadr, the Vatican said Monday.
"If asked, John Paul II would gladly accept a mediation role," the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, told Italian public radio.
Sporadic fighting broke out early Monday with Sadr's Mehdi Army as US-backed Iraqi forces closed in for an expected major military assault on the rebels' stronghold in the city's shrine area.
"It is very important that all the parties involved can talk around a table," the cardinal said. "We request that the sacred nature of the city be respected."