Rebels kill 20 in Iraq poll run-up

Guerillas killed 20 people in attacks in Iraq yesterday, and Prime Minister Iyad Allawi acknowledged what he called pockets of the country would be too unsafe for voting in a January 30 election.

A suicide car bomber killed seven policemen in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town and a Sunni Muslim stronghold in northern Iraq, and gunmen shot dead eight people in a minibus south of Baghdad.

A group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said it carried out the bombing against what it called "cowardly mercenaries" at police headquarters in Tikrit. Eight police officers were also wounded.

Repeated guerilla attacks on Iraqi police and soldiers, who will be tasked with protecting polling stations, have deepened fears of major bloodletting on the day Iraqis vote for a 275-seat national assembly. All 13 members of a committee organising the election in Iraq's restive Anbar province, scene of numerous insurgent attacks, resigned after receiving death threats, the head of the team said.

"Certainly there are some pockets that will not participate in the election. We don't think it will be widespread," Allawi told reporters, adding $2 billion would be spent to beef up Iraqi forces to combat insurgents trying to derail the vote.

US President George W. Bush spoke to Mr Allawi by telephone about preparations for the election and both men agreed it should go ahead as planned, US officials said.

"Both leaders reiterated the importance of moving forward on the date set by the Independent Iraqi Election Commission of January 30," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

The attack on the minibus, in an area known as the "Triangle of Death", occurred shortly after the Tikrit blast. Gunmen kidnapped three people from the vehicle after killing all of the others inside, police said.

It was not immediately clear who had been targeted. Sunni insurgents regularly strike at Iraqi security forces and Shi'ite pilgrims in the lawless zone of dusty towns.

In the volatile northern city of Samarra, a roadside bomb triggered against a joint US-Iraqi convoy killed two Iraqi National Guards, police said. A second bomb killed a policeman and a third killed two more National Guards.