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Baghdad: At least seven people were killed on October 12 by two car bombs outside a Central Baghdad hotel used by some members of the US-backed Governing Council, US and Iraqi officials said.

Paul Bremer, the top US official in Iraq, denounced the attack, the latest in what have become daily strikes against coalition forces and the Iraqi police.

"The terrorists will not succeed," Bremer said in a statement. "Neither the coalition nor the people will be intimidated from our path to a Democratic Iraq."

Body parts and a bloodied football could be seen near a burning white car at the scene of the explosion, as ambulances rushed off and US armoured vehicles sealed off the area.

The suicide bomber and six others were killed, and 11 more were wounded, including a US soldier who was treated on the spot, said US Army Colonel Peter Mansoor.

A car driven by a suicide bomber, and another packed with explosives that was parked outside the hotel, blew up simultaneously, a police officer at the scene said.

The explosions came after police sought to stop two cars at a checkpoint outside the hotel, a witness said. "There was shooting as police tried to keep the cars away," said Saad Mahmud, a local journalist whose offices are close to the hotel.

The blast was the latest in a series of high-profile attacks in Baghdad that included the August 19 bombing of the United Nations offices which left 22 people dead.

Agencies