The military has agreed to a two-month cooling-off period in Al-Majar Al-Kabir, a Shiite town in British-controlled southern Iraq, about mid-way between Baghdad and Iraq's second city of Basra, the paper said.

The Independent added that the policy may be extended to other areas while a review takes place on whether the local civilian population is allowed to carry guns.

The six soldiers Tuesday became the first British troops to die in a hostile incident since US President George W. Bush declared the Iraq war over on May 1.

Several London-based newspapers reported that the troops displayed photographs of their wives and children after surrendering in a last attempt to save themselves as they were cornered in a police station by an angry mob.

Ali Al-Ateya, a radio journalist who had followed the British soldiers as they entered Al-Majar Al-Kabir, told the Daily Express: "They wanted to show them, 'We are just like you, look we have wives and children too'.

"They hoped this would save them from the killers but it did not. They were not shown mercy."

British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said in London Thursday that the killing of the six soldiers may have been triggered by a misunderstanding over an end to weapons searches.

Hoon said: "I think, certainly, that the fact that we have decided to call off (weapons) searches on Monday clearly hadn't been properly understood by the local population, and not communicated properly to them."

WAR.WIRE