A suicide truck bomb has killed 67 people leaving a mosque in Iraq.

The attack came just hours after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki urged Iraqis not to lose faith if a US military pullback resulted in more insurgent attacks.

Almost all US soldiers will leave urban centres by June 30 under a bilateral security pact signed last year, and the whole force that invaded the country in 2003 must be gone by 2012.

Mr Maliki told leaders from the ethnic Turkmen community, reiterating a warning that insurgents were likely to try to take advantage of the US pullback to launch more attacks: "Don't lose heart if a breach of security occurs here or there."

But hours after Mr Maliki spoke, a suicide bomber detonated a truck filled with explosives as crowds of worshippers left a Shi'ite Muslim mosque near Kirkuk.

Sixty-seven people have died, including women and children, and more than 200 civilians have been wounded as dozens of clay homes in the area were flattened. Many people are still feared trapped under the wreckage.

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