A prominent Sunni Arab group today accused some officials in the Iraqi government of having links with Shiite militias involved in sectarian violence and said authorities should be held responsible for any attacks by the armed groups.

President George Bush will meet his defence experts today to thrash out the nuts and bolts of his yet-to-be-revealed Iraq strategy plan.

With 10 days left in office, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld bade a sometimes emotional farewell to Pentagon employees today, saying the single worst day of his nearly six years in office was in spring 2004 when he learned of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse committed by US troops in Iraq.

America’s top soldier in Iraq said the war and the wider battle against extremists in the Middle East was the defining conflict of the generation, and one from which the United States and its allies could not afford to walk away.

US President George Bush today met with a bipartisan group seeking consensus on a new approach for the war in Iraq amid widespread agreement that the administration's current efforts have not worked well enough or fast enough.

A series of violent attacks across Iraq left more than a dozen people dead, including three US soldiers, authorities said today. The killings came despite assurances from U.S. officials that progress was being made to improve security in the capital.

Two of the most senior US generals told Congress today that the surge in sectarian violence in Baghdad in recent weeks raises the possibility of Iraq descending into civil war.

A SUICIDE bomber and a car bomb ripped apart a market yesterday in a Shi’ite slum in Baghdad, killing at least 39 people and wounding more than 100.

A suicide bomber and a huge car bomb ripped apart a market in Baghdad’s Sadr City Shiite slum shortly before dusk today, killing at least 37 and wounding 95.

Dealing with a civil war in Iraq would be the responsibility of Iraq’s own security forces, at least initially, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress yesterday.

TOP members of the Bush administration urged Congress quickly to pass a $91 billion spending bill as US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld scrambled to deny Iraq was sliding into civil war.

American leaders, who have frequently warned that the situation in Iraq will get worse, now believe the violence will continue for some time after the June 30 political transition date.

With a few carefully worded phrases, the US military is apparently stepping back from its strict demands on ending the siege of Fallujah, creating an opening for an Iraqi force to take control of the city from 1,000 or more guerrilla holdouts.

Mark Sage, New York

Twenty people have been killed and 30 injured in a gun battle following an attack on a police station and a government building west of Baghdad today, police and hospital officials said.

Iraqi agents working as security guards at the UN headquarters in Baghdad may have helped the bombers who killed 23 people earlier this week, a US official said today.

A roadside bomb blasted a US convoy in north Baghdad on Monday, killing an American soldier and his Iraqi interpreter, the military reported, and the top American commander announced plans to establish an Iraqi militia to patrol the country.

US forces in Iraq were expecting more trouble today on the anniversary of the 1968 Baathist revolution that brought Saddam Hussein’s political party to power.

Iraqi fighters tried to shoot down a US transport plane with a surface-to-air missile, gunned down the mayor of an Iraqi city and killed an American soldier in a convoy, in a marked escalation of violence.

US-LED forces have suffered their worst casualties of the war in two bloody battles near Nassiriya that raged for hours before Iraqi resistance was vanquished.

TOWARDS Baghdad, part of the 3rd Infantry Division had reached the area of the Shiite holy city of Najaf after a 230 mile, 40-hour sprint through the desert, killing 100 machine gun-toting militiamen along the way.

US Forces claim to have found a plant in Iraq where weapons of mass destruction may have been made.

US AND BRITISH troops continued their advance on Baghdad yesterday after more than 20 coalition soldiers were killed in "the toughest day" of the war so far.