Amid intermittent clashes in Najaf, talks to end the standoff between US-led forces and militiamen loyal to Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr appear to stall. US-led troops exchanged fire sporadically with al-Mahdi Army fighters besieged in and around the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf on Sunday, witnesses told Aljazeera. US tanks reportedly advanced within a few hundred metres of the religious site and drew fire from resistance fighters as helicopter gun ships flew overhead. Hours earlier, a US AC-130 warplane rained cannon fire on al-Mahdi Army positions near the mosque. In the neighbouring town of Kufa, where al-Sadr has often led Friday prayers, clashes between US troops and al-Mahdi fighters on Saturday killed 40 militiamen and civilians, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday. Since fighting flared between Sadr's fighters and US-led Iraqi government forces on 5 August, Najaf's general hospital has reported 52 deaths and 223 people wounded. Doctors at the shrine's makeshift clinic said 71 people have been killed and 62 others wounded. **Negotiations 'suspended'*** The latest clashes came as talks to end the near three-week crisis seemed to stall. Aides of al-Sadr have said they still want to hand over the administration of the site - which houses the highly revered Imam Ali shrine - to Iraq's most senior Shia Muslim authorities. But negotiations to place the shrine under the administration of Ayat Allah Ali al-Sistani have been suspended, al-Sadr aides were quoted as saying on Sunday. An Al-Sadr spokesman in Baghdad, Raid al-Kadhumi, told Aljazeera the al-Mahdi Army wanted al-Sistani's representatives to help conduct an inventory of the many priceless artefacts housed in the shrine before it withdrew, to avoid any subsequent suspicions of impropriety. "But our brethren at al-Sistani's office wanted us to leave the shrine [first] and hand over the keys, which was not logical," said al-Kadhumi. He said his movement was willing to meet any government delegation "to implement what we have already agreed" but that none was forthcoming. **Misinformation*** Confusion has clouded the progress of peace talks between al-Sadr's movement, representatives of al-Sistani and the government of interim Premier Iyyad Allawi in recent days, with various sides offering conflicting reports and misinformation. The Iraqi Interior Ministry on Friday declared police had entered the Imam Ali mosque and arrested about 400 militiamen. But US military sources and Najaf police themselves later denied the ministry's statement. Al-Sadr aide Ahmad al-Shaibani, speaking from inside the site, told Aljazeera the claims were "laughable". US-backed Allawi is under severe pressure to end the crisis in Najaf, and has warned al-Mahdi fighters to surrender or face a decisive military strike. But Allawi is reluctant to approve a direct assault on the mosque, which would risk inflaming Muslim opinion against him. There is already some visible damage to the mosque's minarets from recent fighting. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A U.S. Army Bradley armored vehicle maneuvers during a firefight with Iraqi Shi'ite militia near the edge of Najaf's old town August 22, 2004. (Reuters)