U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has returned from a surprise visit to Iraq where he visited troops on Friday in Tikrit, Mosul, Falluja and Baghdad.

On the day of his visit, a fuel truck exploded in a suicide bombing in the affluent al-Mansour neighborhood, a police official said.

Rumsfeld was in Baghdad for part of his one-day Iraq trip but was believed to have left the country before the explosion.

Rumsfeld did not go to the al-Mansour district, which has been the site of previous attacks and abductions of Americans and other foreigners.

The blast killed at least nine people, wounded 20 others and set six buildings on fire, according to hospital officials.

American soldiers tortured Iraqi prisoners by strangling them, beating them and placing lit cigarettes in their ears, even after the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal came to light in April 2004, according to new allegations.

Bush yesterday acknowledged that replacing US troops with Iraqi soldiers had been hampered by the lacklustre performance of Iraqi units, including instances in which they have fled rather than fight.

At least 22 people were killed and 50 wounded today in an attack at a US and Iraqi base near the northern city of Mosul. A US Defence Department official said unknown assailants used rockets and mortars.

A majority of Americans among those who believed at the beginning that the Iraq war would be swift and victorious now think it was a mistake and the January 30 elections to be held in the country would not be honest.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been heavily criticised by relatives of soldiers killed in action, after it emerged he used a machine to print his signature on condolence letters.

A Jewish settler leader on Monday urged settlers fighting against a Gaza withdrawal plan to resist when Israeli troops come to remove them from the occupied territory.

Ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has urged his compatriots to unite against the US occupation and warned that upcoming elections were designed to divide the nation.

Thousands of people rallied in Pakistan on Sunday, protesting against the president Pervez Musharraf's plan to keep his army post.

Michael Howard could withdraw his support from the Government’s controversial ID card scheme if ministers try to make it compulsory.

Car bombs rocked Iraq's two holiest Shiite cities today, killing at least 60 people and wounding more than 120. In downtown Baghdad dozens of gunmen carried out a brazen ambush on car, killing three employees of the organization running next month's elections. The bombings came just over an hour apart. First a suicide blast that ripped through minibuses at the entrance of the main bus station in the city of Karbala. Then a car bomb in a central square of Najaf crowded with people watching a funeral procession attended by the city police chief and provincial governor.

In a further blow to the government's anti-terrorist strategy a leading lawyer says he will no longer represent suspected terrorists being held under "odious'' laws. (Last week the law lords ruled that indefinite detention without trial contravened human rights laws.) The judgement led Ian Macdonald QC, one of the special advocates given security clearance to represent detainees to resign as "a matter of conscious". New home secretary responded to the eight to one law lords ruling by saying he would not release the men, mostly held in Belmarsh prison. Macdonald said: "I now feel that whatever difference I might make as a special advocate on the inside is outweighed by the operation of a law that is fundamentally flawed and contrary to our deepest notions of justice. "My role has been altered to provide a false legitimacy to indefinite detention without knowledge of the accusations being made and without any kind of criminal charge or trial. "Such a law is an odious blot on our legal landscape and for reasons of conscience I feel that I must resign."