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US soldiers and Iraqi children die after attacks

Three US soldiers were killed in separate attacks around Iraq, while US overseer Paul Bremer warned that he could veto the country's temporary constitution if it did not fit the US vision of democracy.

Capping a bloody day for the coalition, a US soldier was killed and another wounded late Monday afternoon when a bomb exploded as their convoy passed along on a road near Tall Afar in northern Iraq.

The convoy then came under fire, but there were no further casualties, the military said.

Earlier Monday two US soldiers were killed and five others wounded in separate roadside bomb blasts within an hour of each other in Baghdad and the northeastern city of Baquba.

According to Pentagon figures, attacks by insurgents have claimed the lives of 261 US soldiers since US President George W. Bush declared major combat over in Iraq on May 1.

Meanwhile, US civil administrator Paul Bremer signaled he was willing to use the occupation's veto if the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council drafted a temporary constitution that challenged the spirit of Western-style democracy.

"The Transition Administrative law will establish equal rights. The text of the current draft established Islam as the state religion, but says it will be a source of inspiration for law," Bremer said during a tour of a women's center on Monday in Karbala.

He vowed that the new law would protect civil liberties according to the agreement he reached with the Governing Council last November that set June 30 as the final day of the US-led occupation.

Meanwhile, the coalition's deputy operations chief, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, said that a crude bomb exploded at a school in a Shiite district of Baghdad, killing two children and wounding four others.

A rebel group claiming to represent Islamist militants in the restive town of Fallujah, meanwhile, denied any involvement in a raid that killed 23 policemen on Saturday and called for a halt to all attacks on Iraqi security forces.

In Baghdad, China's first delegation of diplomats since the US-led invasion arrived on Monday to prepare for the re-opening of the Chinese embassy.

The 13-member delegation is headed by charge d'affaires Sun Bigan and comprises diplomats from the commerce and foreign ministries and six armed Chinese policemen.
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