Putin doubts Iraq election success under 'total occupation'

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin cast doubt over the viability of holding elections as planned next month in an Iraq under "total occupation" as the number of US soldiers killed by hostile fire reached 1,000.

In the latest violence, assailants targeted the country's minority Christians by setting off explosions in two churches in the northern city of Mosul, without causing casualties.

"I cannot imagine how elections can be organised in conditions of total occupation of the country by foreign troops," Mr Putin said as he met Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi at the Kremlin.