At least 47 people died in Iraq yesterday, including 18 in a car bomb south of Baghdad. The blast in Mahmudiya town targeted industrial workshops and destroyed a three-storey building. North of Baghdad, six US soldiers were killed in an explosion in the Diyala province, the military said.

In an Easter message, Pope Benedict lamented the "continual slaughter" in Iraq. "Nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees," the Pope said.

US President George W Bush is sending 30,000 additional American troops to Iraq which will have arrived by the end of next month.

Underlining the hurdles ahead, a suicide car bomb in southern Baghdad killed seven people, police said.

Iraqi state television yesterday reported the Iraqi military had ordered a 24-hour vehicle ban in Baghdad today, the fourth anniversary of US capture of capital.

In a possible diplomatic embarrassment for Iraq, Iran refused to allow a plane carrying Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki on a trip to Asia to cross its airspace, a senior adviser to the Iraqi leader said. Sadiq Al Rikabi, accompanying Maliki on the trip to Japan and South Korea, said the plane was forced to fly to Dubai.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in Tehran: "Permission for Maliki's flight is a normal issue. All flights need permission."

In another development, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned co-operation with neighbouring Iraq could deteriorate if five Iranian diplomats detained by US troops in Iraq are not set free.

PHOTO CAPTION

A man cries at the scene of a bomb attack in Mahmoudiya, 30km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, April 8, 2007. (Reuters)