Two Britons among 25 killed in Iraq

Several blasts rocked Baghdad on Monday, killing seven people, including two Britons, while clashes between US troops and militiamen left 18 people dead in the populous Sadr City neighbourhood.
Four people were killed and two wounded in an explosion that destroyed an armoured civilian vehicle just outside the sprawling complex housing the US-led coalition that administers Iraq, a military spokesman said.
Two of those killed in the blast were British civilians, according to the British Foreign Office.
"These deaths are shocking and they show the risks that civilians and others have to take in order to assist the Iraqis in the necessary task of rebuilding and reconstructing their country," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told reporters in Brussels. Another three people, including a child, also were killed on Monday in an explosion that destroyed their car only minutes before a US convoy drove by, witnesses said.
Meanwhile, US troops, who have vowed to wipe out Shia scholar Moqtada Sadr's private army, clashed with the militia overnight in a neighbourhood of Baghdad where he has strong support.
Hospital officials said 18 civilians were killed in the populous Sadr City neighbourhood, but the coalition put the figure at 26 and said all were militiamen loyal to Sadr.
Salim's successor, Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar, said in an interview published on Monday that the coalition must grant "full sovereignty" to the transitional government, which has yet to be formed.
"We will not agree to less," he told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.
The United States and Britain were to submit to the UN Security Council later Monday the first draft of a resolution to recognise a new Iraqi government and clear the way for foreign forces to remain in Iraq after the formal end of the occupation.
"Once we have full sovereignty, we will have the right to decide whether multinational forces go or stay," Yawar said.
But he added that the lack of security "means that we will need multinational forces ... which we hope to broaden to include European Union troops and certain influential Arab countries."
He also said another two weeks were needed to set up the transitional government amid intense negotiations involving UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, the Iraqi council and coalition officials.