Iraq bomb kills nine Guardsmen

A car bomb attack on an Iraqi National Guard convoy killed nine troops yesterday, part of a wave of attacks that have escalated while Iraq's political leaders have bickered and failed to form a new government.

Two weeks of increased violence has hiked pressure on Iraq's new leaders to resolve their differences and make good their promises to improve security after historic January 30 elections.

The convoy attack was the deadliest of at least five car bombings yesterday. The bomb struck a National Guard convoy at Abu Ghraib, home to the US prison, some 20 km west of Baghdad, and also wounded 20 Guardsmen, police said.

An attack on a US patrol in western Baghdad killed two civilians, police said. The US military said three American soldiers and seven Iraqi civilians were wounded.

A US vehicle and two Iraqi vehicles were destroyed, and the blast knocked down power lines, they said.

One Iraqi National Guardsman was killed and two were wounded by a roadside bomb at Yusufiya, about 75 km south of Baghdad and two suicide car bombers wounded seven Iraqis on a road 10 km south of the southern city of Basra, police said.

A journalist was shot dead in Mosul, about 390 km north of Baghdad, and a second was wounded, a reporter working for Reuters there said.

They were hit during a gunfight between insurgents and security forces, including US troops, that erupted after a car bomb explosion.

Political sources said intense talks were focusing on drawing the minority Sunni Muslims, Iraq's dominant sect under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, into the government with majority Shi'ite Muslims and Kurds.

"It needs to truly be a government of national unity, with all parties involved, not just a Shi'ite-Kurdish government," one source close to the talks said.

Divisions between the main Shi'ite alliance that won the election and other parties, including the Kurds and a party led by caretaker Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, mean a government might not be formed by a May 7 deadline.

Such a failure could throw the country into deeper uncertainty as signs were that almost three months of delay in forming the government has so far bolstered the insurgency.

Differences centre on distribution of key ministries.

Allawi, a moderate Shi'ite, is insisting his party should get four ministries, including defence, as well as a deputy prime minister's post, Kurdish and Shi'ite sources said.

Kurds want Allawi to be involved in the new government along with Sunnis, the sources said, but the main Shi'ite alliance is frustrated by Allawi's demands.