IRAQ: Guerrillas killed two American soldiers on Saturday and blew up a US ammunition truck yesterday as Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council called for an end to "conspiracies" threatening stability.
The latest attacks were a grim backdrop to this week's conference in Madrid where donors will be asked to contribute about $55 billion to reconstruction costs.
The US military said a patrol came under small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire late on Saturday near the northern oil city of Kirkuk.
In Falluja, west of Baghdad, gunmen attacked a US military convoy yesterday morning, setting an ammunition truck ablaze and sparking off explosions. Fire was returned and six wounded Iraqis were taken to hospital in Falluja where one later died, hospital officials said.
Iraq's Governing Council announced the establishment of a security committee and said no group would remain above the law. It warned that Iraq was in a "dangerous security" situation and that unspecified "conspiracies" were part of the threat.
Meanwhile, threats from Osama bin Laden and the nuclear crisis in North Korea added urgency yesterday to President George Bush's message to a Pacific Rim summit that it must battle terror to ensure its goal of boosting prosperity.
The North Korean crisis, also a focus at APEC, would not be solved by Washington signing a non-aggression pact, Bush said.
However, he held out, for the first time, the possibility of giving North Korea some sort of security guarantee if it ends its nuclear weapons programme.
"This is still a dangerous world," Bush said, using the broadcast of a new audio tape purportedly recorded by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to bolster his case.