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Iraq front line of anti-terror war: US

US officials warned Iraq was on the frontline of the battle against terrorism as a delegation from the country's US-appointed interim administration took its quest for international recognition to the Cairo-based Arab League.

The multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk was tested by the killing of three Turkmen in demonstrations, as British troops in the southern port of Basra went back out on patrol the day after three of their soldiers were killed in a drive-by shooting.

The continued violence around the country came as US civil administrator Paul Bremer declared Iraq one of the main battlefields in the US-declared war on terror, in the aftermath of Tuesday's suicide attack on the UN building in Baghdad that killed 23 people and wounded more than 100.

"It is now unfortunately the case that Iraq has become one of the fields of battle in this global war," Bremer said.

His comments echoed the tough words of his boss, US President George W. Bush, who in his weekly radio address warned terrorists would be hunted down by the US wherever they are.

In a worrying sign for Bush, a Newsweek poll, released this weekend, found that more registered voters -- 49 percent -- would not want Bush to return for a second term in office if the elections were now, compared with 44 percent who would.

The poll found 69 percent of Americans are now convinced the US will become bogged down in Iraq, while 66 percent said the US government was spending too much on rebuilding Iraq.

In Brazil, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan paid an emotional farewell to his slain Iraq representative Sergio Vieira de Mello in the diplomat's hometown of Rio De Janeiro Saturday.

Meanwhile, Iraq's US-approved 25-member Governing Council sent a delegation to Egypt for meetings in a bid to win legitimacy around the Arab world.

The Iraqi delegation was led by Ibrahim Jafari, the council's head, who announced his team would hold meetings with Egyptian Foreign Secretary Ahmed Maher and Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa.

Until now, Arab states have given the Governing Council the cold shoulder, refusing to recognize it as representative of the Iraqi people.

The US has pressed Arab governments to back the council as it attempts to erect a democratic system in Iraq, which it hopes will be a model for the region.

The Iraqi delegates arrived in Cairo from Saudi Arabia where they met Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz.

Jafari said in a press release that the talks in Cairo would concentrate on Iraq's representation in the Arab League.

After months of quiet, trouble brewed in Iraq's northern oil capital of Kirkuk where three ethnic Turkmen were shot dead yesterday after they opened fire on a police building during a demonstration, Governor Abdul Rahman Mustafa said.

Two police officers were arrested on suspicion of firing on the crowd, a US military spokesman said yesterday.

The killings came a day after fighting between Kurds and Turkmen in Tuz Khurmatu to the south of Kirkuk left eight dead.

Two Turkmen were also killed by US troops when an American patrol was fired on after entering Tuz Khurmatu in response to reports of "Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence," a US spokesman said.

The unrest came amid deep tensions in the region around Kirkuk between the area's ascendant Kurdish majority and Arab, Turkmen and Christian minorities.

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