The number of US soldiers killed in Iraq topped 1,500 yesterday after the military announced the deaths of three more Americans, while car bombs targeting Iraqi security forces killed at least four people in separate attacks.

　　Two suicide car bombs exploded outside the Interior Ministry in eastern Baghdad yesterday, killing at least two policemen and wounding five others, police Major Jabar Hassan said. Officials at nearby al-Kindi hospital said 15 people were injured in the blasts. The attacks were part of the relentless wave of violence since the January 30 elections.

　　Another car bomb targeting a police convoy exploded in Baqouba, 60 kilometers northeast of the capital, killing one Iraqi policeman and a civilian, the US military said. Six police and 10 other civilians were also wounded.

　　Amid the violence, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi extended the state of emergency, first announced nearly four months ago, through March. The order remains in effect throughout the country, except in Kurdish-run areas.

　　The emergency decree includes a nighttime curfew and gives the government extra powers to make arrests without warrants and launch police and military operations when it deems necessary.

　　The latest reported US deaths brought the toll to 1,502 since America launched the war in Iraq in March 2003.

　　The military said two US troops died on Wednesday in Baghdad of injuries suffered when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle. Another soldier was killed the same day in Babil province, part of an area known as the "Triangle of Death" because of the frequency of insurgent attacks on US and Iraqi forces.

　　At least 1,140 Americans have died as a result of hostile action, according to the Defense Department. The figures include four military civilians.

　　Since May 1, 2003, when US President George W. Bush declared combat operations in Iraq had ended, 1,364 US military members have died, according to the AP count. That includes at least 1,030 deaths resulting from hostile action, the military said.

　　The tally is based on Pentagon records and AP reporting from Iraq.

　　The US exit strategy is dependent on handing over responsibility for security to Iraq's fledgling army and police forces. Forming Iraq's first democratically elected coalition government is turning out to be a laborious process.

　　The car bombers in Baghdad were trailing a police convoy that was trying to enter the Interior Ministry, Hassan said. Iraqi security forces opened fire on the vehicles and disabled them before they could arrive at a main checkpoint, said Colonel Adnan Abdul-Rahman, an Interior Ministry spokesman.

　　Talks aimed at forging a new coalition government faltered over Kurdish demands for more land and concerns that the dominant Shiite alliance seeks to establish an Islamic state, delaying the planned first meeting of parliament.

　　Shiite and Kurdish leaders, Iraq's new political powers, failed to reach agreement after two days of negotiations in the northern city of Irbil.

　　(The Associated Press)