Moments after a spokesman for Grand Ayatullah Ali al-Sistani claimed Shia religious authorities were handed control of the shrine, another London-based al-Sistani aide denied the report. Confusion reigns in Najaf as intermittent reports offer conflicting reports of who is in charge of the Imam Ali mosque. AFP reported than an al-Sistani spokesman had clarified that the keys to the mosque were delivered to the leading Shia cleric's office in Najaf. However, in an interview with Aljazeera, al-Sistani aide Hamid al-Khafaf said no keys had yet been delivered. Earlier, Iraqi Interior Ministry said police had entered the revered site and taken about 400 al-Mahdi Army militiamen into custody after al-Sadr's aides symbolically handed control of the site to Iraq's senior Shia religious authorities "The Iraqi police are now in control of the shrine, along with the religious authorities," senior Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim had claimed. There was no immediate word on whether the militiamen would receive an amnesty or remain in detention. The whereabouts of al-Sadr also remain uncertain. **Iraqi report denied*** But in an interview with Aljazeera, an al-Sadr aide, Ahmad al-Shaibani, denied police had entered the site and said Kadhim's statement was "laughable". "There were no al-Mahdi Army men in the holy shrine as of this morning - they are all in the old sector of the city and there is intense fighting with US troops there," al-Shaibani told Aljazeera. Meanwhile, a top US military officer in Iraq said he could not confirm the country's police had taken control of the mosque in Najaf on Friday, and added the whereabouts of al-Sadr were unknown. "Right now, we cannot confirm that," Rear Admiral Greg Slavonic told Reuters when asked about Iraqi government statements that police had seized the Imam Ali Mosque and arrested hundreds of al-Sadr's Shia fighters. A US defence official went further and denied Iraqi government claims that Iraqi police had entered the holy shrine. "Not a lick of truth to it," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We are still outside of the shrine, and so are the Iraqi police." **Handover*** Al-Shaibani told Aljazeera hours earlier that control of the religious site had been given to representatives of the country's most senior Shia figure. "The keys of the Imam Ali shrine have been handed over to representatives of the Shia highest religious authority, Ayatullah Ali al-Sistani," said al-Shaibani. "This step means the administration of the Imam Ali mausoleum has been submitted to the religious authority in the city," he added. The handover comes after two days of dire warnings by the Iraqi interim government that al-Sadr's militia should withdraw from Najaf and disband, or face a decisive military assault. Fighting in the area has been fierce. At least 77 Iraqis have been killed and 70 wounded in fighting in Najaf over the past 24 hours, Iraq's Health Ministry said on Friday. Six of those killed in Najaf were police killed in a mortar attack. Najaf awoke to an uneasy calm on Friday - punctuated by occasional gunfire - hours after an overnight US bombing raid shook the historic area of the city. **Warnings*** On Thursday, the Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi issued a "final call" to al-Sadr and his fighters to leave the shrine - though he did not mention a deadline. But the US-backed premier has faced a dilemma in trying to oust the al-Mahdi Army militia from their entrenched position within the Imam Ali mosque complex. The site is widely revered by Muslims, especially Shia Muslims. An assault - particularly one involving US forces - risked igniting a dangerous backlash. US officials have said their troops were unlikely take part in an attack on the mosque site - although US marines, tanks and aircraft have been clearly active around the area. Television broadcasts on Friday showed two of the mosque's minarets were marked by shrapnel, while a clock in one of the towers had been damaged. **Talks sought*** Despite the handover of the Imam Ali mosque, al-Sadr's aides suggested the al-Mahdi Army remained an active force, though the Shia leader's movement wants to conclude a peace deal with the government. Al-Shaibani told Aljazeera al-Sadr's movement "has not closed the door towards negotiations with the Iraqi government to end fighting in Najaf but it is not ready to surrender." Asked earlier whether fighters of the al-Mahdi Army would leave the shrine if a deal were struck, al-Shaibani said: "Any fighter who wants to enter it will have to leave his weapon outside." The Shia militiamen had been running the Imam Ali shrine since an earlier uprising in April. Earlier on Friday, our correspondent reported that an intense artillery barrage hit the cemetery, the old sectors of the city and buildings around the Imam Ali mosque in the early hours. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A militiaman of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al Sadr's Mehdi army keeps watch from the gold dome of the Kufa mosque during Friday prayers, August 20, 2004. (Reuters)