IRAQ'S president indicated yesterday that he was ready for talks with anti-government opposition figures and members of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Ba'ath Party.

Two suicide car bombers detonated vehicles today in a Baghdad residential district, and a hotel housing foreign journalists was the apparent target, US and Iraqi officials said.

IRAQ'S Shi'ite interior minister accused critics yesterday of exaggerating reports of torture at a lock-up seized by US troops last weekend.

Iraq’s Shiite interior minister today accused critics of exaggerating reports of torture at a lockup seized by US troops, saying inmates included Shiites and Sunnis, and only a handful showed signs of abuse.

The discovery of 173 mostly Sunni Arab detainees in an Iraqi Interior Ministry basement lockup – malnourished and showing signs of torture – appeared to validate some of the long-standing grievances and has raised questions about the Shiite-led government’s commitment to democracy and human rights.

Iraq’s prime minister disclosed today that more than 170 malnourished Iraqi detainees were found at an Interior Ministry detention centre and that some appeared to have been tortured.

More than 150 malnourished Iraqi detainees found at an Interior Ministry detention centre appeared to have been tortured, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said today.

A truck exploded near the Australian Embassy in central Baghdad today, killing two people and wounding four, police and witnesses said.

A suicide driver detonated a car bomb today outside the offices of Iraq’s largest Shiite political party, killing three other people.