Guerrillas detonated a car bomb outside an Iraqi security force base just north of Baghdad yesterday, killing nine people and wounding dozens in the latest attack on Iraqis cooperating with occupying troops. With the formal handover of sovereignty to an Iraqi government less than four weeks away, Baghdad has seen a surge in deadly attacks in recent days. The 15-nation UN Security Council was called into a special session yesterday amid signs that the United States is close to securing agreement on a draft UN resolution on the future of Iraq after June 30.

?A vehicle-borne improvised explosive device was detonated?, US Major Andreas Dekunpfy told Reuters at the scene of the blast at the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps base in Taji. US troops are also based nearby.

It was not clear whether the bombing was a suicide attack, a tactic regularly used by insurgents. The US military said six people were killed, but hospital officials later said nine Iraqis were killed and 61 wounded.

On Saturday, two soldiers were killed and two wounded when a bomb was detonated near their convoy in the northeast of the capital. The previous day, five soldiers were killed in a guerrilla attack in the same area.

Insurgents also attacked foreigners travelling in civilian four-wheel drive vehicles on the airport road on Saturday. After the attack two vehicles were in flames and witnesses said they saw at least two bodies. The US military had no information.

South of Baghdad, gunmen burst into a police station in the town of Mussayab on Saturday and forced police into a cell before detonating explosives in the building, police said. They said at least 10 policemen and two civilians were killed.

Iraqi police and security personnel are regularly targeted by guerrillas, who have repeatedly threatened Iraqis who work with occupying troops and foreign organisations. On Saturday, a rocket-propelled grenade attack on Iraqis queuing outside an army recruiting centre in the northern city of Mosul wounded 17 people.

Washington has been trying to quell guerrilla resistance ahead of the June 30 handover of sovereignty, but says its 138 000 troops in Iraq will remain well beyond that date to help struggling Iraqi security forces combat the insurgency.

Iraq?s new prime minister, Iyad Allawi, repeated yesterday his desire to see them stay on : ?We would like the multinational forces to remain in Iraq for some time until Iraq is capable of handling its own security problems.?

International divisions over how long foreign troops should stay in Iraq have hampered efforts to agree on a new resolution at the United Nations Security Council ahead of the handover. A resolution that US officials would like to see passed this week.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said he expected a breakthrough, and US President George W. Bush and French President Jacques Chirac, long at odds over Iraq, said after talks in Paris yesterday they hoped for agreement soon. Russia, which also wields a veto on the council, said the third draft ? giving Iraq?s new leaders the right to send home US-led troops ? was better but needed more work.

In the holy city of Najaf, a truce between US forces and Shi?ite militiamen appeared to be holding yesterday. Marines agreed to pull out of the city and hand over security to an Iraqi force that included many former members of Saddam?s army and some of the guerrillas themselves.

<B>Aladdin SAAQ</B>