Baghdad  - The Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Tuesday repeated its call for the execution of three officials from the former regime of Saddam Hussein for genocide, as a dispute over sentencing continued.

Former ministers Ali Hassan al-Majid and Sultan Hashem and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, a former army chief, were sentenced to death in 2007 for their part in the so-called Anfal campaign against Kurdish civilians and militia in 1988.

Karbala, Iraq  - In a sign of improved security, a European tour group visited antiquities and monuments near the southern Iraqi city of Karbala, the city's tourism authority said on Tuesday.

The group, which included British, Russian and other European tourists, visited archaeological sites near Karbala, was the first of its kind to visit Karbala in "many long years," according to Karbala's tourism authority.

Baghdad - News that the US military had shot down an Iranian unmanned drone over Iraq drew mixed response from Iraqi politicians on Tuesday.

US military sources Monday night confirmed to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that they had shot down an Iranian military drone over Iraq on February 25. On Tuesday an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters in Tehran that he was unaware of the "vague" report.

Bagdhad - Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa was in Baghdad Tuesday for talks with Iraq's president and prime minister on greater cooperation in the troubled country's "national reconciliaton" process.

The visit comes a day after the US claimed it had shot down an Iranian drone over Iraqi airspace last month, and other strains within the Arab world over Iran's influence.

Amman - Iraqi Transport Minister Amer Abdul Razzak said Monday that his government would shortly declare Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba as the only conduit for Egyptian goods imported to Iraq.

Abdul Razzak, who is currently on a visit to Aqaba, told the official Petra news agency that the step was taken because of the "plausible transport costs" through the Jordanian port and as a way of increasing trade between the two countries.

Baghda