BAGHDAD, Feb 12: The US commander in the Middle East, Gen John Abizaid, escaped unscathed on Thursday when guerillas fired rocket-propelled grenades at his convoy in an Iraqi town noted for attacks on US forces.

The US military said it was not clear whether the attackers knew that Gen Abizaid and the local US commander, Gen Charles Swannack, were in the convoy in Falluja, west of Baghdad. Neither they nor other US personnel were hit.

In another incident, on Wednesday evening, a bomb exploded as troops were passing by in their vehicles, killing two US soldiers. Generals Abizaid and Swannack were visiting an Iraqi civil defence corps compound in the volatile town when three grenades were fired at their convoy from rooftops nearby, US army spokesman Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt said.

"No coalition soldiers or civilians were injured," Brig Kimmitt said at a news conference. "Whether we can directly link this attack to any foreknowledge that General Abizaid and General Swannack were going to be there is a leap that we are not going to make at this time," he added. Gen Swannack commands the 82nd Airborne Division, responsible for security in Falluja.

Soldiers rushed out of the compound Gen Abizaid was visiting and returned fire. They also pursued the assailants but without success, Brig Kimmitt said. In Washington, a US defence official said an Iraqi civil defence patrol searched a mosque in the area from which fire had come but "found no enemy".

The attack took place about an hour after a United Nations envoy held talks with Iraq's top Shia leader on the feasibility of holding elections before a planned American handover of power on June 30.

It also came in a week when suicide bombers have killed 100 Iraqis, mostly police and army recruits, in two major attacks that have harshly underlined the country's security problems.

Brig Kimmitt has previously denied suggestions of leaks from the US military on the movements of prominent visitors, but Gen Abizaid is the third high-profile American official to escape an attack in Iraq.

US administrator Paul Bremer's convoy was attacked in December, and a Baghdad hotel where Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying was hit by rockets in October.

The violence has raised questions over whether Iraq is secure enough to hold early direct elections. The United States favours a gradual approach through caucuses that would lead to polls next year.

UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said on Thursday he had agreed with Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani that elections must be held, but he left open when and said polls must occur in the best possible conditions. Recent suicide bombings and attacks on US troops have deepened fears about security at an election that could leave civilians vulnerable at polling stations. -Reuters