A car bomb near the office of a leading Kurdish party in northern Iraq has killed 50 people and wounded 70 others.
The blast took place near the local office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Makhmour, a town near the Kurdish city of Arbil, the capital of the autonomous region of Kurdistan.
Colonel Abdul Qadir al Harky, the head of police in Makhmour, said there were many bodies under the rubble and he expected the death toll to rise.
At least 15 people were killed and 100 wounded when a truck bomb exploded near the Kurdish interior ministry in Arbil last week.
Meanwhile, the United States and Iran are to meet in Baghdad in the next few weeks to discuss Tehran taking a "productive role" in Iraq's security, according to the White House today.
U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker will represent the United States, which has accused Iran of backing Shi'ite militia in Iraq and of seeking to make an atomic bomb.
Tehran denies both charges.
Iran, which has not had diplomatic relations with the United States in more than 25 years, first announced the talks today.
White House spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, confirmed the development from Air Force One en route to Virginia with President George W. Bush.
Thousands of American troops searched today for three U.S. soldiers missing in Iraq after an ambush in which al Qaeda said it seized "crusader" forces.
The self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, a group led by al Qaeda, said in an Internet posting it was holding soldiers who survived an attack south of Baghdad in which the U.S. military said four U.S. troops and an Iraqi army translator were killed.
President George W. Bush is deploying 30,000 more U.S. troops in Iraq in June in what is seen as a final push to halt a slide into all-out civil war between majority Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs.
