The new deaths came a day after Iraqi Health Minister Ali al-Shemari estimated 150,000 civilians have been killed in the war - about three times previously accepted estimates of 45,000-50,000 killed in the nearly 44-month-old conflict.

In comments to the AP during a visit to Austria, al-Shemari said he based his figure on an estimate of 100 bodies per day brought to morgues and hospitals - although such a calculation would come out closer to 130,000 in total.

"It is an estimate," al-Shemari said.

Hassan Salem, of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, said the 150,000 figure included civilians and police, as well as those who were abducted, killed and whose bodies were brought to morgues run by the Health Ministry. SCIRI is Iraq's largest Shiite political organization and holds the largest number of seats in parliament.

No official account for Iraq deaths in the post-invasion conflict has ever been available. Accurate figures are difficult to establish because police and hospitals often give widely conflicting tolls of those killed in major bombings. Death figures are also reported through multiple channels by government agencies that function with varying efficiency.

A member of the movement of radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, al-Shemari also repeated the Shiite-dominated government's demands for a speedier US transfer of authority to Iraqi forces and the withdrawal of US troops to their bases, away from Iraq's cities and towns.

"The army of America didn't do its job. ... They tie the hands of my government," al-Shemari said.

Although largely opposed to the US presence, moderate Sunni lawmakers are deeply distrustful of the dominantly Shiite security forces that have been linked to illegal militias. They have threatened to withdraw from the government and take up arms unless militias are forcefully restrained. They also have charged Shiites in the government with refusing to meet their demands for a fair division of power and natural resources.

The dean of the Sunni politicians in parliament said Thursday there were attempts by Iran to run Sunnis out of the country. Adnan al-Dulaimi then called on Arab countries to support Iraq's Sunni minority.

"There is a Safawi (Iranian) plan to root the Sunnis out of this country, and we are confronting it," al-Dulaimi said. "We call on our Arab brethren to support us and confront this Safawi plan."

His political group has five ministers in the Cabinet and al-Dulaimi again threatened to pull them out of the government.

State television said the speaker of Iraq's parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, was traveling Friday to neighboring Iran to attend a conference of Asian parliamentarians.

Such a visit could be significant because Iran's hard-line Shiite theocracy maintains close ties to Iraqi Shiites, who make up about 60 percent of Iraq's population and dominate the government.

Iraq's Sunnis are highly suspicious of such ties, while the US commander in Iraq has castigated both Iran and Syria, Iraq's neighbors east and west, for trying to undermine efforts to stabilize the country.

Al-Mashhadani is a Sunni who has been a frequent critic of the US military presence in Iraq.

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