Iraq blast kills at least 67

Updated 13.27 Wed Aug 01 2007

Keywords: Sunni, Shia, Nuri al-Maliki, Barham Salih, Iraq

At least 67 people have been killed and around 100 injured in Iraq when a petrol tanker packed with explosives blew up in western Baghdad.

Earlier, 20 people were killed and 40 wounded by a suicide car bomb in the capital's central Karrada district.

"This is probably the most serious political crisis we have faced since the passage of the constitution" - deputy prime minister Barham Salih

Meanwhile, the country's 15-month-old Shia-led government is facing its biggest crisis to date after the main Sunni Arab bloc withdrew its ministers.

Deputy prime minister Barham Salih said: "This is probably the most serious political crisis we have faced since the passage of the constitution. If unresolved the implications are grave."

Negotiations on Iraq's new constitution, adopted in a referendum in October 2005, were notoriously difficult.

US officials and others spent huge amounts of effort convincing Sunni Arabs to take part in the poll and the national elections in December 2005 that brought Shias to power.

The move comes after prime minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition government failed to meet a list of demands made by Sunni ministers.

It is likely to complicate efforts by Mr Maliki's shaky government to agree on a series of laws which Washington sees as crucial to bringing minority Sunni Arabs more closely into the political process and ending sectarian violence.