London  - The people of Iraq are increasingly hopeful about their future, as violence and insecurity are no longer the main concern for most of the population, an opinion poll published Monday showed.

The survey of almost 2,300 Iraqis shows that, for the first time since the 2003 invasion, Iraqis were hopeful about the future and are increasingly preoccupied with conventional worries such as the economy and jobs.

But it also showed that Iraqis remain unhappy about the role of foreign powers in their country, notably Iran, the United States and Britain.

The poll was undertaken jointly by the BBC, ABC News and Japan's NHK television in February.

Ramadi, Iraq  - Six detainees suspected of belonging to the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq were fatally shot while being transferred from custody in the northern province of Nineveh to the western province of al-Anbar, police said.

"Unidentified gunmen killed six detained al-Qaeda members between the villages of Baiji and Haditha in the northwest of Iraq," a source in al-Anbar's security forces, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Saturday.

Baghdad - The Iraqi government is seeking to bring former members of the ousted Baath Party into the process of national reconciliation, an Iraqi newspaper reported today.

Baghdad  - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is looking forward to retiring after his term expires at the end of the year, Iraq's Buratha news agency reported on Friday, citing an interview with Iranian television.

"I think at the end of this year, my tour will be finished, and I hope to be retired, to go back home and to have time for writing my memoirs," the Iraqi president told the English-language Iranian television station Press TV in the interview broadcast Friday.

Mosul, Iraq - Two Iraqi soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb as they patrolled an area west of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday, police there said.

The soldiers, who were on patrol in the al-Baj district roughly 60 kilometres west of Mosul, became the latest casualties in the government's attempt to pacify the area, which remains among Iraq's most dangerous.

On February 20, Iraqi security forces launched "Operation New Hope" in an attempt to arrest insurgents concentrated on Mosul's left bank. The push has netted more than

Baghdad  - The Iraqi journalist who famously threw his shoes at former US President George W Bush wept in court on Thursday when informed that two of his colleagues had died in a bomb attack on Tuesday.

Montadher al-Zaidi, a 30-year-old journalist for the Cairo-based al-Baghdadiya television station, wept when told that a cameraman and a reporter from the station were among more than 30 people killed in a bombing in the Abu Ghraib district of Baghdad on Tuesday.