Two suicide bombers driving trucks laden with explosives died in massive blasts at a Polish military camp south of Baghdad yesterday.

　　Troops opened fire as the trucks tried to plow through the camp.

　　Their fire triggered blasts that killed at least 13 people, including the two drivers and Iraqi civilians in a nearby neighborhood, coalition officials said.

　　More than 64 people were injured in the blasts, including at least 31 Iraqis, 12 Filipinos, 10 Poles, 10 Hungarians and an American, officials said. Polish General Mieczyslaw Bieniek, commander of the 9,500-strong Polish military contingent, called it a "well coordinated terrorist attack."

　　A coalition spokeswoman in the area, Hilary White, said the attack took place close to several homes near the military camp and the Iraqi civilian dead included men, women and children.

　　Four homes near the base collapsed in the blast.

　　The attack happened as members of the country's Governing Council continued to push aside the US idea of holding regional caucuses to elect an interim government after the planned June 30 hand-over.

　　"The enemy's strategy is fairly clear," coalition military commander Lt General Ricardo Sanchez told reporters yesterday in Tikrit. "They plan to isolate us from the Iraqi people."

　　US officials have predicted an increase in attacks as the June 30 date for the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq approaches.

　　Some insurgents fear their campaign could lose steam once power is returned to Iraqis, US officials believe.

　　However, major differences remain on how to choose a new government.

　　In Baghdad, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, a Shiite Arab member of the Governing Council, said yesterday that the idea of using caucuses to choose members of a provisional legislature was "gone with the wind."

　　He said the only solution palatable to Iraqis was a general election - which Washington opposes before the June 30 power transfer.

　　"Anything else will make things worse and the results will be damaging to Iraq," he said. "Only elections will give the legitimacy needed for any future political process or body."

　　US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Tuesday that the United States was committed to giving the Iraqi people control of their country by July 1 but remained open to ideas from the United Nations, which is expected to report this week, about how an interim government is chosen.

　　Council member Dara Nor al-Din, a Sunni Kurd, said the body was waiting "for the decisions reached by the United Nations on whether the elections are possible and what ideas they have to solve the problem."

　　The US also unveiled a list of 32 wanted people including suspected cell leaders, former members of Saddam's military and regional Baath leaders thought to be helping the insurgency.

　　Atop the list, with a US$1 million reward, is Mohammed Yunis al-Ahmad, a former top Baath Party official. Rewards between US$50,000 and US$200,000 were offered for the others.

　　Until now, US officials have not made public a list of suspected leaders of the insurgency that erupted after the regime's collapse and has killed more American soldiers than did the invasion that toppled Saddam.

　　The violence, blamed on Saddam loyalists and foreign Islamic militants, has persisted despite the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's capture in December.

　　In Tikrit, Army investigators will examine why a mortar round from an army base smashed into a neighborhood home, killing three Iraqis, including a 10-year-old child.

　　Lt Col Steven Russell said it was possible that the mortar crew was given the wrong coordinates when it fired the 120mm round on Tuesday from the base that sits on the banks of the River Tigris near Tikrit, Saddam's hometown.

　　"There is no wrongdoing at all suspected on the part of the firing crew," he said.

　　(The Associated Press)