Baghdad - Influential Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi escaped an assassination attempt when a car bomb targeted his motorcade in western Baghdad, his office confirmed on Saturday.

The attack on the controversial Shiite politician occurred on Friday evening in the western Baghdad area of al-Mansour as Chalabi was returning to his residence.

The bomb killed two civilians and wounded 17 others.

Washington, Sep 6: Iraqi leaders and officials have expressed disappointment over a report that US had spied on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top leaders.

“If it is true, it reflects that there is no trust and it reflects also that the institutions in the United States are used to spying on their friends and their enemies in the same way,” said Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesman of the Iraqi Government.

“We will ask for an explanation,” the Washington Post quoted Dabbagh, as saying.

Baghdad - Negotiations on a security agreement between Iraq and the United States regarding the future presence of US troops have been put on hold, the news agency Aswat al-Iraq reported Friday.

The agency quoted Vice President Tarek al-Hashimi, who said talks had been stopped "for a while." There still were serious differences, al-Hashimi said during a visit to the Baghdad Sunni suburb of Adhamija on Thursday night.

Baghdad - Iraqi forces withdrew from the Kurdish town of Khanaqin after am agreement between the parties in Iraq's ruling coalition, the Kurdish Democratic Party said Thursday.

Kurdish fighters will re-assume control of the area and Iraqi forces will not be allowed in without the prior approval of Kurdish local authorities, Kurdish officials said.

Iraqi forces entered Khanaqin in July during a military operation in Diyala province, 57 kilometres northeast of Baghdad. The move was designed to clear the area off insurgents and armed groups.

Nicosia, Sept 4 : China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Asia’s biggest oil and gas company, has signed a three billion dollar agreement to develop and operate Iraq''s al Ahdab oil field under a 20-year service contract.

The agreement is the first major oil deal reached between Iraq, which has about one third of the world’s largest reserves, and a foreign firm.

Iraq’s Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani has said that time was running out for big western firms to conclude the deals they have been negotiating for many years.

The Minister said that the two sides had renegotiated the terms of an old deal which was signed back in 1997 concerning the development of the Adhab oil field.

Baghdad - US forces shot dead six Iraqi security f