Baghdad: A new agreement between officials in Fallujah and the US-led coalition was reached to extend the ceasefire "indefinitely" in the besieged Sunni flashpoint and enforce a ban on carrying arms, a mediator involved in the talks said today (April 25, 2004).

"We have reached a new deal that extended the ceasefire indefinitely and secured an agreement on several new points," said Hashim Al-Hassani of the Iraq Islamic Party.

He said the deal includes a ban on carrying weapons and the start of joint patrols of Iraqi police and Iraqi Civil Defense Corps forces and coalition troops in the city.