The United States condemned Tuesday a suicide bomber attack on the Turkish embassy in Baghdad as "desperate" attempt to undermine the rebuilding of Iraq.

"The more progress we make, the more desperate the holdouts of the former regime and foreign terrorists become," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters, responding to the attack which claimed the life of the suicide bomber and injured six others.

"Iraq remains the central front of the war on terrorism, and when we achieve a free and democratic and prosperous Iraq, we would have dealt a significant blow to the enemy," the spokesman said.

The attack came when Iraqis, including the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, are grumbling over a Turkish decision to send stabilization troops to Iraq.

(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2003)