BAGHDAD, March 3: Iraqi overseer Paul Bremer announced on Wednesday a massive increase in border security following the deadly attacks in Karbala and in Baghdad.

Mr Bremer said 60 million dollars had been earmarked to tighten controls on Iraq's borders and that hundreds more vehicles and security personnel would be deployed to beef up security.

"There are 8,000 border police on duty today and more are on the way," Bremer said. "We are adding hundreds of vehicles and doubling border police staffing in selected areas," he said. "The US has committed 60 million dollars to support border security."

"Tuesday showed us the dark vision of the evil-doers. They fight to ward off harmony and are happy to take the road to power with the corpses of their innocent victims," he said. "The terrorists are dead set against the vision of a democratic Iraq, a vision share by an overwhelming majority of the Iraqi people."

Mr Bremer blamed Jordanian Abu Mussab al Zarqawi, who is suspected of links to the Al Qaeda network, and said his aim was to provoke sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis. "Zarqawi and like-minded terrorists are in a losing race against time." -AFP