Baghdad  - Iraq on Friday began oil exploration for the first time in 20 years, with initial drilling in the southern Nassiriya province.

Three exploration teams, consisting of engineers, geologists, geophysicists and technicians would oversee operations at the al-Gharaf oil field, Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Gehad told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

Baghdad  - Iraq and the United States are close to reaching a deal under which all US combat troops would leave Iraq by December 2010, an Iraqi lawmaker said Thursday.

Haider al-Ababdi, a Shiite parliamentarian from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Dawa Party, said US troops would leave Iraq's cities and remain inside their bases by June 30, 2009. He said the two governments had been close to reaching a deal for about a week.

He also told broadcaster CNN that other troops would leave by the end of the next year.

Baghdad  - The leader of Iraq's Islamic Party was shot and killed in an apparent assassination in Mosul province, a party spokesman said Thursday.

Baghdad - Three people were killed and five injured when a bomb went off in a cafe in Iraq's Hillah province, witnesses said Monday.

Baghdad  - An Iraqi defence ministry spokesman said Saturday Iraq was seeking to purchase weapons from the US as well as other countries in response to an announcement by the Pentagon of 10.7 billion dollars arms deals to Iraq.

Ministry spokesman, Mohammed al-Askari, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that Baghdad was cooperating with Washington to supply the Iraqi army with military equipment and weapons with the aim of developing a strong Iraqi military force.

Baghdad - More than 10,000 detainees have been released from US-run detention centres in Iraq so far this year, compared with some 8,900 released in all of 2007, the US military said Saturday.

The military said in a statement the release of the detainees was part of its programme to rehabilitate prisoners through religious counseling and education and vocational training.

About 21,000 detainees are currently held in US-run detention centres in Iraq, including about a dozen women and over 300 juveniles, according to the statement.

Everyday, US troops detain about 30 people and release 45 detainees on average, the military said, adding that the average detention time is 330 days.