Blasts outside Green Zone as US, Iraq close in on military pact

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Bombs exploded outside the Iraqi capital's tightly guarded Green Zone on Tuesday as US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte wrapped up a visit focusing on a controversial military pact.

Two powerful blasts went off in quick succession at a time of heavy traffic. An Iraqi security official said one soldier and six civilians were wounded in the attack on the edge of the Green Zone.

Inside the zone, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters an agreement was "very close," but nothing was final.

The first blast targeted a parked Iraqi armoured vehicle and a car bomb went off minutes later at a nearby parking lot opposite the foreign ministry building, which shares a boundary with the Green Zone.

Iraq's government and the US embassy are located in the Green Zone, to which access is tightly controlled by American troops.

Minutes after the attacks, Negroponte began his scheduled press conference with Zebari at the Green Zone.

Negroponte was wrapping up a four-day visit to Baghdad for talks on the controversial deal on the presence of American troops in the country after a UN Security Council mandate for multinational forces expires on Dec 31.

Even as they spoke, the US military reported another death of an American soldier killed in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday in a gunbattle with an Al-Qaeda suspect.

Meanwhile, Armenia has withdrawn its contingent of 46 soldiers from Iraq, further shrinking the US-led coalition forces, the American military said on Tuesday.

The unit of the former Soviet republic brought its operations to a close on Monday with a ceremony at Camp Victory in Baghdad, a statement said.

Armenia sent troops to Iraq in Jan 2005. Since then, it has worked in support of the Polish Brigade which announced on Saturday that its 900 soldiers will quit the country by the end of this month.

"The Armenian armed forces have rotated 380 personnel through Iraq and have provided first-class support to Operation Iraq Freedom in the areas of transportation, engineering and medicine," US Marine Corps Major General Paul Lefebvre said.