A BOMB blast that killed 10 people in the holy Shia city of Karbala yesterday cast a pall over the official launch of Iraq's first post-Saddam elections.

Sheik Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalayee, an aide to Iraq's most senior Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, was among the 40 wounded in the attack at the gate to a major Shia shrine.

It was a stark reminder of the risks for the six-week campaign leading to a January 30 vote for a 275-member National Assembly.

By the end of Wednesday, local time – the deadline for submission of candidate lists to Iraq's electoral commission – 90 parties and coalitions had applied to compete in the vote, meaning that the ballot will be long and complicated.

Among the more than 5000 hopefuls entering the race was interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shi'ite and Washington favourite

Heading the al-Sistani-backed United Iraqi Alliance list is Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the pro-Iranian Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution and chief of its armed wing, the Iran-based Badr Brigade, during Saddam's rule.

With the threatened Sunni boycott, the lists submitted make Dr Allawi and Mr al-Hakim the leading contenders to take top jobs in Iraq's next government.

In Washington, US President George W. Bush warned Iran and Syria yesterday against "meddling" in Iraq.

"We will continue to make it clear, to both Syria and Iran, that . . . meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq is not in their interest," Mr Bush said as he wrapped up a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Earlier, Iraqi Defence Minister Hazem Shaalan launched a blistering attack on the United Iraqi Alliance, saying its list of candidates had been influenced by Iran.

"Iran is the most dangerous enemy of Iraq and all Arabs," Mr Shaalan said. "The source of terrorism in Iraq is Iran.

"Terrorism is Iraq is orchestrated by Iranian intelligence, Syrian intelligence and Saddam (Hussein) loyalists, in collaboration with Zarqawi," Mr Shaalan said of Iraq's most-wanted man, the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

"The financing and training of the terrorists comes from Syria and Iran," he added.

US commander Lieutenant-General Lance Smith said in Washington, meanwhile, that US forces were dismantling the leadership of Zarqawi's insurgent network in Iraq, but that he was proving elusive.

Yesterday's launch of Iraq's election campaign came as an Iraqi government official said Saddam Hussein's notorious right-hand man, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali", will be the first among 12 former regime members to appear at an initial investigative court hearing next week to face charges for crimes allegedly committed during Saddam's 35-year dictatorship.

Indictments could be issued next month – just ahead of the elections.

Each faction will win a number of seats in the assembly proportional to the percentage of votes it gets nationwide – meaning the candidates listed highest on each roster are most likely to be elected.

The groups ending up strongest in the assembly will be in a powerful position as the body will elect a president and two deputies, who will nominate the prime minister. The assembly will also draw up a new constitution.

Shi'ites make up 60 per cent of Iraq's 26 million population and are expected to dominate the polls.

Such an outcome worries some secular Shi'ites, along with neighbouring Sunni-dominated countries and the US, who are wary of a Shi'ite-run Iraq growing closer to its eastern neighbour, Iran.

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