Baghdad - At least four people were injured Wednesday in a bomb blast on a bus in north Baghdad while the US military said it captured a suspected Iranian-trained explosives expert in Kut in southern Iraq.

A bomb went off on a bus in the Shiite-dominated Kazimiyah in north Baghdad, injuring four passengers, police sources told the Voices of Iraq news agency.

US troops arrested on Wednesday a suspected special group explosives expert in Numaniyah, 180 kilometres south-east of Baghdad near the city of Kut, according to a US military statement.

The military uses the term "special groups" to describe Shiite fighters breaching a truce order issued by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose militia fought Iraqi and US troops for months until the truce was reached in May.

Baghdad - Iraq's deputy electricity minister said on Wednesday that leading German company Siemens will provide Iraq with equipment to strengthen its power grid.

Iraq has agreed with Siemens that the company will share in the building of a total of 16 power plants with a capacity ranging from 160 to 270 megawatts, Salam Kazaz told the Iraqi al-Sabah newspaper.

He said that the power plants were aimed at strengthening the country's power network with 3,250 megawatts of power within two years.

"The deals will be sealed with Siemens after the consent of the prime minister's office," Kazaz said.

The negotiations with the German company are taking place in the Turkish city of Istanbul.

Baghdad - A senior advisor, David Satterfield, to the US Secretary of State said Tuesday that the

Copenhagen  - Iraqi-born Huda Falah on Tuesday won the Miss Headscarf 2008 title in a competition staged by Danish public broadcaster DR.

London  - The final withdrawal of the remaining 4,000 British troops from Iraq could be announced by the end of the year in order to step up troop levels in Afghanistan, reports said Tuesday.

The BBC said discussions had begun about forces pulling out of southern Iraq if the security situation continued to improve along current levels.

The government was under pressure from the military to release the troops, now stationed at barracks just outside Basra, while pressure was mounting in Afghanistan.

The reports, which have not been confirmed, come after a flare-up of violence in Basra forced Prime Minister Gordon Brown to go back on an earlier announcement that troop levels would be cut to 2,500 this spring.

Baghdad - Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of Iraq's largest Shiite political party is in Tehran for medical tests, his party said Monday.