BAGHDAD, March 11: At least 44 people were killed in violence across Iraq on Tuesday, including 16 in a bomb attack on a bus, as US and Iraqi officials began talks on the US military’s future role in the country.

The day’s bloodiest attack was on a bus travelling from the port of Basra to Nasiriyah when it was struck by a bomb, some 430 kilometres south of Baghdad, Nasiriyah police Lieutenant Colonel Ali Siwan said.

At least 16 people were killed and 22 wounded, he said.

Separately, eight people were killed when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a checkpoint manned by Iraqi soldiers and members of a local group fighting Al-Qaeda in Iraq, police said.

The attack took place in Dhuluiya, 70 kilometres from the capital in Salaheddin province, at around 3:15 pm (1215 GMT), police Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Khalid said.

Around 80,000 Iraqis, mostly Sunni Arabs, have allied with the US military by forming local Al-Sahwa, or Awakening, groups to fight Al Qaeda.

The US military-funded groups have increasingly faced attacks from extremists.

Elsewhere, 19 people were killed in clashes between militants and security forces, including 10 in the central city of Kut and nine in the northern city of Mosul, security officials said.

In Basra a civilian was shot dead by gunmen, police said.

The latest violence came a day after insurgents killed eight US soldiers, making on Monday the deadliest day for American forces in seven months.

Five were killed and three wounded in a suicide attack in Baghdad’s once upscale neighbourhood of Mansur, the military said, while insurgents killed three more US troops and their interpreter in Diyala province, the theatre of a joint US-Iraqi sweep of Al Qaeda targets.

The mounting toll comes at a time when the military is reducing troop numbers amid claims that daily violence has fallen since August.

The military’s losses in Iraq are one of the key issues in the US presidential election and have hit the campaign of President George Bush’s Republican party.

Meanwhile, the foreign ministry announced the start of talks between US and Iraqi officials on the future of the US military presence in Iraq.

“The two parties started today, in the ministry of foreign affairs, talks .... on agreements and arrangements for long-term cooperation and friendship, including agreement on temporary US troop presence in Iraq,” the ministry said.

The talks follow a November agreement between Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki setting a July 31 target date to formalise US-Iraq economic, political, and security relations.

At the time Maliki said the accord sets 2008 as the final year for US-led forces to operate in Iraq under a UN mandate, which the new bilateral arrangement would replace.

The agreements will work out the future role and number of US forces in Iraq in the shadow of the November 2008 US presidential election, despite sky-high American public opposition to the war.

When finalised, the new agreement would trigger the end of UN sanctions imposed after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and return full sovereignty to the government in Baghdad.

“The United Nations is working to help Iraqis make 2008 the year of Iraqi sovereignty,” UN Special Representative to Iraq Staffan de Mistura said at a press conference in Najaf.

The talks between the two delegations are expected to cover issues such as whether Washington would have permanent bases in Iraq, how many US troops would be stationed here, and for how long.

The final deal would require the approval of the Iraqi parliament.—AFP