Iraq's Sunni vice-president spoke out Sunday against the upcoming US-Iran talks on the situation in his country, saying the dialogue was "damaging to Iraq's sovereignty."

Iraq's Shi'ite and Kurdish-dominated government has been pressing for those talks. But comments by Tariq al-Hashemi, a leader of the main Sunni bloc in parliament, reflect wide differences among the country's religious and ethnic groups on the role of Shi'ite-dominated Iran.

"It's not good to encourage anybody to talk on my behalf on Iraqi internal and national matters and I would have preferred that this subject be tackled by Iraqis themselves," al-Hashemi told reporters on the sidelines of the third and last day of an international conference held by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum.

"This is really damaging to Iraq's sovereignty," he said. "This is why we insisted that the Iraqis should participate in these meeting, should be aware of the agenda and should be consulted on whatever resolution and agreement to be reached."

"So, we're going to keep our eyes open from A to Z on all these meetings," al-Hashemi added.

Both Iranian and American officials have said that the talks, beginning May 28 in Baghdad, will be limited to the security situation in Baghdad and will not delve into the diplomatic deadlock between the two countries over Iran's nuclear program.

Attacks kill 7 US soldiers

Hashemi's comments came as the US military announced seven American soldiers and a translator had been killed in separate attacks in Baghdad and a city south of the capital.

Six of the Americans - and the translator - died on Saturday in a bombing in western Baghdad, the military said.

A soldier from the 13th Sustainment Command was killed and two were wounded when a blast struck their vehicle on Saturday near Diwaniyah, a mostly Shi'ite city 130 kilometers south of Baghdad, the command said.

The names of the victims were mot announced until their families can be notified.

S Korean soldier dies

A South Korean soldier was found shot dead at a military base in Iraq, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Sunday, in South Korea's first reported casualty since it joined the US-led reconstruction effort in 2004.

The 27-year-old army first lieutenant, identified only by his family name Oh, was found "with a gunshot wound under his jaw" in a barber shop inside a South Korean base in the northern Iraq city of Irbil on Saturday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

Oh's rifle and one empty cartridge were found nearby, the statement said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said it had confirmed there were no signs of an attack but it stopped short of saying whether the soldier might have killed himself.

South Korea has about 1,200 troops in Irbil on a reconstruction mission, and parliament has instructed the administration to devise a full pullout plan during 2007.

(China Daily via agencies May 21, 2007)