Insurgents once again used a suicide car bomber who shook the headquarters of the US-led coalition in Baghdad on Sunday, when a meeting between UN, US and Iraqi officials on power transfer was on the way. 

Several cars were burned in the powerful blast and human parts and blood stains were strewed everywhere across the open area in front of the so-called Green Zone, where former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein used to have as his grand Republican Palace.

The US military and the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) announced that at least 20 civilians were killed and 60 more injured when the explosion went off shortly after 8:00 am (0500 GMT).

However, eyewitnesses told Xinhua that up to 30 people were killed and many more were wounded by the force of the blast, which smashed windows of buildings 500 meters away.

A white Toyota pick-up truck packed with 1,000 pounds of explosives stopped at the checkpoint and was detonated when an American soldier approached the driver for paper inspection, said US officials and witnesses.

The bombing was launched during the rush hour, when the site witnessed traffic jams and numerous employees queuing up for examination to enter the US-led coalition headquarters.

The Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) blamed terrorists allied with Saddam Hussein for the attack.

"Terrorists are allies. Saddam Hussein is a terrorist. There is no doubt about that," IGC spokesman Hamid al-Kafai told a Baghdad conference.

Asked about the legitimacy to brand terror groups such as al-Qaida as Saddam allies, al-Kafai said, "They (Saddam and al-Qaida) are allies, whether they are coordinated or not."

The bold attack was the first suicide bombing in this capital city this year and also the first suicide attempt at the heavily fortified US headquarters although it was previously bombarded by rockets and mortars.

The assault inflicted the heaviest death toll since a car bomb killed more than 30 people, including 19 Italians, in the southern city of Nasiriyah last November.

Violence was also witnessed in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, where two people were killed inside a white Mercedes when they transported an explosive device late Saturday.

In Basra, the second largest city in Iraq, two British soldiers were wounded in a roadside bomb attack around 9:00 am (0600 GMT) on Sunday.

The fresh spate of attacks came as the United Nations was to send a team to assess the security situation in preparation of returning to the war-torn country.

The world body evacuated all its international staff following two deadly suicide car bombings at its headquarters in northern Baghdad late last year.

US officials had predicted that the country will see a surge in terror actions during the process that leads to a free and sovereign Iraq.

In a statement condemning the "outrage," US overseer of Iraq Paul Bremer said the attack was "another clear indication of the murderous and cynical intent of terrorists to undermine freedom, democracy and progress in Iraq."

The de facto ruler of Iraq noted that the bombing was "clearly timed to claim the maximum possible number of innocent victims" and the innocent people were once again compromised.

Despite the attack, which was apparently devised to affect the process of returning sovereignty to Iraqis, Bremer insisted that an original plan to hand over the remaining authority to a transitional Iraqi government in July "remains unchanged."

Bremer is currently in New York for a meeting with Iraqi officials and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday.

The US and Iraqi officials had counted much on the meeting to solve a looming dispute between different parties and ethnic sections of the war-torn country.

The US-sponsored plan, according to which the occupational authority will transfer sovereignty to an indirectly-elected transitional government by June, has undergone a major challenge from the country's majority Shiite Muslims.

Iraqi supreme Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani had expressed his reservation over the selection by provincial caucuses of a council due to install the transitional government.

The most influential Iraqi Shiite leader favored a general, direct election ahead of the power handover, an idea supported by many Iraqi Shiites who had marched in streets to show their solidarity with Sistani and threatened to use force against dissidents. 

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2004)