Iraq’s interim prime minister warned today that efforts to resolve the stand-off in Fallujah peacefully have entered their “final phase”.

A militant linked to al Qaida, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has issued a website statement claiming responsibility for an attack on a home used by Iraqi interim prime minister Iyad Allawi.

Four mortar rounds rocked a neighbourhood near the political party headquarters of Iraq’s new interim prime minister today, injuring six people, an Interior Ministry official said.

Iraq’s interim prime minister said today that it was up to the Iraqi Special Tribunal to decide whether Saddam Hussein and his henchmen should face capital punishment on war crimes charges, the Arab language television station Al-Arabiya reported in Baghdad.

Iraq’s interim prime minister warned today that the “forces of terror” would be crushed as his new government took the oath of office to assume power only hours after US authorities handed over sovereignty.

Iraq’s interim prime minister appealed today for help in improving the country’s security situation, asking other countries to bolster their support to Iraq’s beleaguered forces.

A SUICIDE bomber rammed his four-wheel drive vehicle packed with artillery shells into a crowd of Iraqi army volunteers in Baghdad yesterday, and the massive explosion that followed killed at least 35 people and wounded 138.