The Iraqi cabinet on Sunday approved a security pact with the US that will allow American forces to stay in the country until 2011. All 27 cabinet ministers present at the meeting, in addition to PM Nouri al-Maliki, voted in favour of the pact.

The agreement will be submitted to parliament later. The draft agreement consists of 31 articles and calls for US troops to pull out of Iraqi cities by June 2009.

As the cabinet meeting started a roadside bomb went off at a Baghdad checkpoint, killing three people, according to AFP. Another seven people were wounded in the attack, which took place in the capital's northeast Al-Shaab neighbourhood.

Later, a suicide car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint in Iraq's Diyala province Sunday, killing at least 15 people, including seven policemen, a security official said. Police Major Hassan al-Kurawi said another 20 people were hurt in the attack, which took place east of the provincial capital Baquba.

© 2008 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)