Iraq hostages freed

US-led special forces freed three Italians and a Pole held hostage in Iraq and captured some of their abductors in a bloodless rescue mission in Iraq yesterday, coalition officials said.

"This was a happy ending to a story that could have been tragic," Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on state television. He said the men were being flown by helicopter to Baghdad and were due to return to Italy today.

Four Italians working for a US security firm were abducted on April 12 near Baghdad. One was killed after Italy refused to bow to demands to withdraw its 2,700 troops from Iraq. The Polish businessman was seized at his Baghdad office last week.

While Iraq's hostage crisis eased, insurgents detonated two car bombs that killed 13 Iraqis and a US soldier yesterday.

The bombers struck ahead of a UN Security Council vote that was expected to approve Iraq's transition from occupation to rule by an interim government on June 30.

In the northern city of Mosul, a taxi carrying three men blew up near the mayor's office, witnesses said. The US military said at least nine Iraqis were killed and 25 wounded.

Some bodies were charred beyond recognition. An hour earlier, a car bomb exploded outside a US base in the town of Baquba, 65 kilometres north of Baghdad, killing four Iraqis and a US soldier. The US military said 10 soldiers, one foreign contractor and six Iraqis were wounded.

US officials say they expect more guerilla attacks ahead of the June 30 handover. Discussions at the Security Council on a resolution endorsing the transition have been complicated by international wrangling and by divisions within Iraq.

The thorniest issue was over how much control Iraq's new leaders would have over military operations by US-led forces.

But France and Germany, which both opposed the Iraq war, said they would back the much-amended draft resolution after its US-British sponsors made further changes on military policy.

Nevertheless, France, which has veto power on the 15-nation council, said it was still not fully satisfied.

"This will not prevent us giving a positive vote in New York to constructively help find a positive way out of this tragedy," Foreign Minister Michel Barnier told France Inter radio.

"Germany is going to vote for the resolution," said Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer in Berlin.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he expected a 15-0 vote for the resolution, which gives international legitimacy to the newly formed interim government and authorises a US-led multinational force, now at 160,000 troops.

"What we wanted was a unanimous vote and that's what I hope and believe we will get later today (yesterday)," he told BBC radio.

The Bush administration was keen for a vote early this week so that disputes over the resolution do not overshadow a summit by the Group of Eight industrial nations in Sea Island, Georgia.