Iraq leaders put off govt talks despite US pressure

BAGHDAD - Iraqi leaders shelved talks on Tuesday on forming a government despite a warning from US and British leaders against further delays, as rebel violence continued to claim lives across the country.

Just hours after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her British counterpart Jack Straw left Iraq on Monday after an unprecedented two-day visit, 10 worshippers were blown up by a suicide car bomber near a Shiite mosque in Baghdad.

The attack was reminiscent of a bombing of a Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra in February that triggered a wave of sectarian killings as Shiites launched reprisal attacks against Sunnis, leaving hundreds dead.

At least 38 other worshippers were wounded in Monday’s attack near the Al-Shurufi mosque in Baghdad’s northeastern neighbourhood of al-Shaab.