At least 24 people were killed in bombings in Iraq on Sunday as US troops clashed with Shia militiamen, rekindling tensions between coalition forces and followers of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Nine people were killed, including five police commandos from the anti-terrorist "Wolf Brigade", when a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car into a police convoy in south-eastern Baghdad. Twelve people were wounded.
Seven others, two of them children, were killed and four wounded when two mortar shells exploded in a commercial street in the centre of Samarra, north of Baghdad, police said. "The attackers apparently targeted a nearby Iraqi base but missed," said police captain Akram Kamel.
Two civilians were also killed and another 68 wounded when a bicycle bomb exploded in a busy street in the mainly Shia town of Hilla south of the capital.
Later the same day, six civilians were killed and 19 others wounded as a car bomb exploded in the town of Musayyib, 55 kilometres south of Baghdad, local police said.
Meanwhile, French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy called for an international conference to be held on Iraq to avoid a "partition" of the country.
"I hope there will be an international conference on Iraq with all the political parties in Iraq, to be able to think of tomorrow so that Iraq remains one country and there will not be any partition by one side or the other," he said.
Al Qaeda's frontman in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has declared all-out war on the country's majority Shia population and there are fears of a surge in violence in the run-up to the October 15 referendum on the new constitution.
Amid the violence, British Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted that the insurgency was proving more ferocious than he had anticipated, nevertheless vowing to keep British troops in the country until they end their mission.
"I didn't expect quite the same sort of ferocity from every single element in the Middle East that came in and was doing their best to disrupt the political process," Blair told BBC television.
The prime minister however refused to confirm a newspaper report that Britain and the United States would present a blueprint to the Iraqi parliament next month for British troops to begin withdrawing as early as May.
Clashes erupted in Baghdad's Shia bastion of Sadr City overnight, with an interior ministry official saying 10 militiamen loyal to Sadr had been killed after Iraqi-US forces entered the impoverished district in search of Mehdi Army leaders.
The fighting follows a week of rising tension in the southern city of Basra between British forces and Sadr's outlawed Mehdi Army militia after the dramatic arrest and release of two British undercover soldiers.
A defence ministry official confirmed clashes took place, but put the toll at eight militiamen killed and five wounded.
A US spokesman said the clashes started shortly before 1 am (2100 GMT Saturday) and lasted until about 2:30 am. "There were a series of engagements," he said, adding that no US troops were hurt.
A spokesman for Sadr's office in Baghdad said four civilians were killed.
"We're not confronting the enemy without orders from Najaf," he added referring to the holy city, which is home to Sadr.
In another incident involving the Mehdi militia, demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse in Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad, calling for the release of 17 arrested Mehdi Army members, a lawyer said.
US forces also raided a Sadr office in the northern town of Kirkuk, according to sources close to Sadr.
Meanwhile, Iraq's electoral commission said that Iraqis living abroad will not be allowed to participate in the referendum on the country's constitution, but can cast their vote in general elections slated for December 15.
In other violence, gunmen in Baghdad got away with 850,000 dollars after holding up a finance ministry bus and killing two police guards, an interior ministry official said.
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