Last Updated: Sunday, 18 January, 2004, 07:30 GMT
Baghdad car bomb 'leaves 18 dead'
The blast went off as Iraqis for waited for appointments
At least 18 people are believed to have been killed in a suspected suicide car bombing outside the US headquarters in the centre of the Iraqi capital.
The huge blast occurred at about 0800 (0500GMT) at the gates of a former palace of Saddam Hussein that houses the Coalition Provisional Authority.
Most of the dead are thought to have been Iraqis waiting for meetings with the US authorities.
One witness who was driving by said the blast lifted his car into the air.
Cars were set on fire in the blast, the force of which was felt across the city.
The US military say 18 civilians were believed killed by the blast, and about two dozen others injured.
"We believe it was a car bomb in the vicinity of Assassin's Gate," another spokesman said, referring to the heavily-fortified gate to the former presidential palace which now houses the US-run Coalition Provisional Authority.
"I was lining up for a job when a Land Cruiser and another one went off," said one man, Haidar Hanoun.
"It was very strong."
One Coalition military source was quoted as saying most of the dead were inside cars. "They didn't have a chance" in the face of a huge fireball, he said.
US soldiers are inspecting the tangled wreckage left by the bomb and police are out with sniffer dogs, reports the BBC's Caroline Hawley from the scene of the blast. The two main bridges across the River Tigris have been closed.
The last big car bomb attack in Baghdad was on New Year's Eve, when five people were killed when a bomb exploded outside a busy restaurant in the city centre.
UN role
The blast comes a day after three US soldiers and two Iraqis were killed in a bomb attack on a patrol north of Baghdad.
Saturday's deaths took the number of American troops killed since the war began in Iraq in March last year to 500.
The US servicemen killed were taking part in a joint patrol with Iraqi civil defence staff looking for explosive devices, when a roadside bomb exploded at Taji, about 30 km (20 miles) from Baghdad.
Meanwhile as debate continues over the issue of how Iraq should be run in future, the US says it intends to ask the United Nations to back its plans for the transfer of power.
The US administrator Paul Bremer is to meet UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday in a drive to get the UN to return to Iraq.
He is also expected to seek UN help in convincing the Shia majority that US proposals for an unelected transitional government are the best way to meet a July deadline for a handover of sovereignty.
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