Meanwhile

Over there:

BAGHDAD - Two U.S. soldiers killed by a roadside bomb while on foot patrol south of Baghdad on Friday, the military said, taking to eight the total number killed in Iraq in the last two days.

* BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomber killed five Iraqi soldiers and one civilian by a checkpoint in east Baghdad, police said.

* KIRKUK - Six policemen wounded by a pair of roadside bombs near Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

TUZ KHURMATO - A truck bomb at a crowded outdoor market killed 30 people in the northern town of Tuz Khurmato, 70 km (45 miles) south of Kirkuk, police said. Ninety people were wounded.

BASRA - One British soldier was killed in the southern Iraqi city of Basra overnight Friday during the largest operation by British forces in the country this year, the military said.

GARGHOUSH - A suicide car bomber killed 22 people and wounded 17 on Friday in an attack on Shi'ite Kurds in Garghoush, a village near the Iranian border, a local official said.