FALLUJAH, Oct 23: US troops said they caught a top aide to Iraq's most wanted man on Saturday in Fallujah while the interim government said it had reopened dialogue with leaders in the restive city as the spectre of a major assault loomed.

The US military said it detained a senior member of Abu Musab al Zarqawi's network and five other guerillas during a pre-dawn raid in the militant bastion west of Baghdad which has been the focus of near-nightly air strikes in the hunt for the Jordanian-born militant.

"Due to a surge in the number of Zarqawi associates who have been captured or killed by multinational strikes and other operations, the (captured) member had moved up to take a critical position as a Zarqawi senior leader," the military said in a statement.

The wife of the man, identified as Hamid Fayed al Jumaili, said he was a farmer and that he was arrested along with his two sons and three friends by US troops who descended on their home in Al Hussay, on the southern edge of Fallujah.

"They came in helicopters and armoured vehicles," she said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi last week ordered Fallujah residents to hand over Zarqawi or face invasion, scuttling negotiations that had been going on for over two weeks between the government and community leaders over the redeployment of Iraqi forces in the city.

But Defence Minister Hazem Shaalan hinted on Saturday that dialogue may prevail over bombs and guns.-AFP