At least six people were killed and 20 others injured today in a double bomb attack outside the Baghdad office of an Iraq government agency which cares for Sunni mosques and shrines, witnesses and a hospital official said.

SADDAM HUSSEIN was forced to attend his trial yesterday, looking haggard and wearing an Arab robe rather than his usual suit but walking in on his own, shouting “Down with Bush”.

The new head of Iraq’s biggest Sunni government organisation has accused “some elements” in the Shiite-controlled Interior Ministry of random arrests to keep Sunni Arabs from registering to vote in the constitutional referendum.

An important Sunni cleric has urged Iraq’s new president to resist US pressure and free thousands of suspected rebels, a sign the religious group most often associated with the Iraqi insurgency might be willing to work with the new government.

A car bomb exploded in a busy Mosul market today and a mortar barrage struck near the Italian Embassy and an Iraqi National Guard base in Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounding at least seven.