Turkey and Iran told US-led occupiers to restore order in neighboring Iraq after a spate of bombings and ethnic clashes, and as thousands protested the attempted assassination of a Shiite leader.
Iran warned the US-led coalition after an attempt to bomb one of Iraq's four leading Shiite clerics, Grand Ayatollah Seyed Mohammed Said al-Hakim.
More than 3,000 Shiite Muslims took to the streets of Baghdad outside the headquarters of the US-named governing council to protest the bombing and recent ethnic clashes chanting, "No to America! No to Saddam!"
Banners denounced the killing over the weekend of at least eight ethnic Shiite Turkmen in the northern cities of Kirkuk and Tuz Khurmatu.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, condemned Sunday's bombing in the holy city of Najaf as part of a plot against Islam and Shiites, the majority in both Iraq and Iran.
Iran's foreign ministry said, "The Islamic Republic of Iran is worried about the intensification of instability and insecurity in Iraq and holds the occupying forces responsible for the incident."
Turkey, a NATO member that refused to let US troops deploy from its territory during the Iraq war, was more guarded in its criticism of the coalition.
"We have reminded them that they need to do their best to establish peace there," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told reporters.
The clashes came as Turkey weighed sending as many as 10,000 troops to join an international security force in Iraq.
The US will send more troops to Iraq "in a minute" if the top US commander in the region asks for them, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.
US President George W. Bush's national security adviser urged patience with the war in Iraq to an increasingly worried US public.
"We must remain patient. When Americans begin a noble cause, we finish it. We are 117 days from the end of major combat operations in Iraq. That is not very long," Condoleezza Rice said.
Rice defended the US-led invasion of Iraq and the ousting of Saddam Hussein as an "essential" battle in the war on terrorism.
"His regime posed a threat to the security of the United States and the world," she said. "This was a regime that pursued, had used and possessed weapons of mass destruction."
Although Bush cited Baghdad's alleged ties to al-Qaeda and possession of banned weapons of mass destruction to justify the war, US forces in Iraq have yet to find conclusive evidence of either claim.
Despite the bombing of UN headquarters, most European aid organizations in Iraq vowed to stay on, even if in reduced numbers, while continuing to express concerns for their safety.
The Bush administration is encountering resistance to a new UN Security Council resolution to encourage additional countries to send troops to Iraq, US officials said Monday. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told reporters it is not clear whether the United States will pursue a new resolution.
Other officials, asking not to be identified, acknowledged that the opposition is not surprising given the strong council stand against the US decision to go to war with Iraq without the council's blessing.
Secretary of State Colin Powell interrupted his vacation last Thursday to travel to New York to make the case for a new council resolution.
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