President Bush says the upsurge in violence in southern Iraq and parts of Baghdad represents a "defining moment" in the history of a free Iraq.

An Iraqi soldier opened fire on U.S. colleagues last week, killing two American troops. The incident happend when U.S. and Iraqi troops were doing a joint patrol.

Seven Iraqis, among them three women and a child, have been reported killed by the US military. The deaths come a day after the United States and Baghdad agreed to keep American forces in Iraq beyond 2008.

American Roman Catholics were urging lawmakers to stop the violence in Iraq and end partisan bickering.

Figures from the Iraqi government show that civilian deaths from violence in Iraq fell by more than half in September compared to the previous month.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki says security forces have taken control of the city of Karbala where gunbattles during a major Shi'ite religious festival killed at least 52 people.

At least four people were killed in fresh violence today in the Iraqi city of Karbala, where tens of thousands of Shi'a are taking part in a pilgrimage.

Senior military commanders have told Prime Minister Gordon Brown that Britain can achieve "nothing more" in south-east Iraq and 5,500 British troops still deployed there should be withdrawn without any delay, media reported in London on Sunday.

Iraq has convened several key meetings this week with neighboring states aimed at improving security. While Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki traveled to Turkey and Iran to discuss border security and terrorism, Iraqi leaders met representatives from neighboring states in Damascus to follow up regional commitments made at the May Iraq neighbors meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Iraqi police say a car bomb targeting a local police chief in the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk killed at least two people and wounded 17 today.

The U.S. military in Iraq says its troops killed 26 insurgents and detained 17 others in two pre-dawn raids in the Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad.

The U.S. military says 14 U.S. soldiers have been killed in the past three days of fighting in Iraq. The military reported the deaths of six soldiers on June 21, including five who were killed in a roadside bomb explosion in Baghdad.