IRAQ:At least 19 people have been killed and 25 others wounded by a suicide bomber who blew up his car in a market just outside Iraq's western city of Falluja, police have said.
Hospital sources said most of the victims of yesterday's bomb were women and children.
In Diyala province last week, a suicide bomber killed at least 20 people and wounded another 20 when he blew himself up in a queue of about 150 young men at a police recruitment centre.
Falluja, 50km (31 miles) west of Baghdad, is in restive Anbar province, a stronghold of Sunni Arab insurgency. Some Sunni Arab tribes there have been engaged in a war with al-Qaeda militants over control in Anbar.
The tribes have joined forces with the police to tackle the militants.
The US military has more than 6,000 troops in Anbar, where local commanders have said that al-Qaeda accounts for about 75 per cent of militants in and around Falluja.
British commanders in Iraq have drawn up a plan for the withdrawal of almost all British troops within 12 months, as one of several options to be presented to Gordon Brown when he takes over as prime minister.
Meanwhile, Britain's former ambassador to Washington has warned that the British and American military presence in Iraq was worsening security across the region and should be withdrawn quickly.
Sir Christopher Meyer acknowledged yesterday that leaving Iraq would be "painful", but said the mission was not worth the death of one more serviceman.
"I personally believe that the presence of American and British and coalition forces is making things worse, not only inside Iraq but the wider region around Iraq.
"The arguments against staying for any greater length of time themselves strengthen with every day that passes," Sir Christopher said.
He added: "I think the Iraqis are in fact sorting themselves out - often bloodily - independent of what we're doing."
The former diplomat, posted in Washington in the run-up to the 2003 invasion, was giving evidence to the Iraq Commission in London.
The cross-party group - modelled on America's Iraq Study Group - was set up by the London-based Foreign Policy Centre think tank, in conjunction with the TV station Channel 4, to examine possible options for Britain's role in the situation in Iraq.