Two bombs exploded near a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 15 people and wounding nearly 60 others, as Iraq's feuding leaders try to ease sectarian tensions.

As scores of people inspected the damage caused by the first blast, a roadside bomb, a suicide bomber in a car drove into the crowd and blew himself up.

In a similar coordinated attack earlier in the day, suicide car bombers launched twin attacks inside a police academy compound in the town of Tikrit, 150 km north of Baghdad, killing at least seven people and wounding dozens. A police official said 57 people were wounded in the attack near the mosque in the mostly Shi'ite Shu'la district of Baghdad.

The bombings come at a volatile time when Iraqi politicians are trying to calm tensions as they argue over the make-up of a government.

Iraq's newly empowered Shi'ites and Kurds are trying to form an alliance for a Cabinet while the once privileged Sunnis, whose members are leading an insurgency, have been sidelined.