A suicide car bomb struck a market Wednesday in the Shi'ite district of Sadr City, killing 17 people and wounding 33, police said, a day after a blast targeting university students killed 70 in what appeared to be a renewed campaign of Sunni insurgent violence against Shi'ite targets.

The explosion occurred at 3:55 PM near the outdoor Mereidi market, one of the neighborhood's most popular commercial centers, police said, giving the casualty toll. The force of the blast shattered the windows of nearby stores and restaurants.

Twin car bombs struck the Al-Mustansiriya University, not far from Sadr City, on Tuesday as students were lining up for the ride home, leaving at least 70 people dead and dozens wounded.

It was the single most deadly attack against civilians in Iraq since November 23, when a series of car bombs and mortar attacks by suspected Al-Qaida in Iraq fighters in Baghdad's Sadr City Shi'ite slum killed at least 215 people.

FM urges talks

Kuwait's emir told the US secretary of state that Washington should talk to Syria and Iran to improve the situation in Iraq, the Kuwaiti foreign minister said Wednesday.

Sheik Mohammed Al Sabah told reporters that when Condoleezza Rice met Kuwait's emir, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, on Tuesday, she had spoken of the "the difficulties facing the Iraqi Government in imposing security, and (difficulties caused by) outside interference."

"That is why his highness (the emir) stressed the importance of a dialogue with (Iraq's) neighbors, and the importance that there is no estrangement between them and America", Sheik Mohammed said.

He quoted the emir as telling Rice it was important to have a "dialogue with Syria, in particular, and with Iran in the interest of Gulf security in general."

Rice came to Kuwait on Tuesday for a meeting on Iraq with her counterparts from the six Arab Gulf states plus Jordan and Egypt.

Speaking at Kuwait airport before flying to Oman, Sheik Mohammed did not reveal what the eight foreign ministers told Rice about the new US plan for Iraq. But he said Rice had told the emir that US President George W. Bush had found it difficult to send 21,500 more US troops to Iraq, but he had taken the decision to prevent the country from slipping into a civil war.

In announcing his Iraq plan last week, Bush rejected the recommendation of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan US panel, which had urged talks with Damascus and Teheran to curb the sectarian violence in Iraq.

(China Daily via agencies January 18, 2007)