(AP)
Updated: 2007-08-20 16:29

An Iraqi provincial governor was blown up by a roadside bomb on Monday in what appeared to be an escalation of a power struggle between rival Shi'ite factions that threatens to destabilise the oil-producing south.

An Iraqi man walks through rubble from a suicide truck bombing in the village of Qahtaniya, 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Mosul, Iraq on Sunday, Aug. 19, 2007. [AP]

Mohammed Ali al-Hassani, governor of Muthanna province, was on his way from his home in the city of Rumaitha to Samawa, the provincial capital, when his convoy of nine cars was hit by a powerful roadside bomb, provincial officials said.

One bodyguard was also killed and two others wounded.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called for Iraqis to exercise restraint, saying the perpetrators were seeking to "drown the province in chaos".

Making the first visit by a senior French official since the US-led invasion in 2003, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said France was ready to play a role in Iraq, but only after listening to representatives of all ethnic and sectarian groups.

Kouchner said France supported a UN Security Council resolution giving the United Nations a bigger role in Iraq. He was speaking after talks with President Jalal Talabani.

"One part of the fight against violence and the restoration of peace and democracy can happen through the United Nations ...France approves this path, France approves this (UN) resolution...and we will assist in this direction," Kouchner told a joint news conference with Talabani.

"Let us listen to the Iraqis and assure them that the solution to their problem will be Iraqi ... Let us make sure that sovereignty, integrity and democracy in Iraq are preserved. For France this is essential ... We are ready to participate in this process," he added.

He said France had disagreed with the United States on Iraq but that was in the past.

His arrival in Baghdad on Sunday coincides with attempts by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to improve ties with the United States. The two countries had a bitter fallout over the US invasion, which France opposed.

SETTLING SCORES

Hassani was the second provincial leader to be killed in two weeks. The governor of southern Diwaniya province, a fellow member of the powerful Shi'ite Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), was blown up by a roadside bomb on August 11.

SIIC and Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's political movement are uneasy bedfellows in the ruling Shi'ite Alliance and have 30 seats each in parliament. Tensions have sometimes sparked fierce clashes between fighters loyal to the two groups.

SIIC and its armed wing, the Badr Organisation, are locked in a struggle with Sadr's Mehdi Army militia for control of towns and cities in Iraq's predominantly Shi'ite southern provinces. Hassani was a senior leader of the Badr Organisation.

Hadi al-Ameri, an Iraqi parliamentarian and head of the Badr Organisation, which he insists has renounced violence, blamed remnants of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime for the killing.

"The purpose behind these assassinations is to create Shi'ite-Shi'ite strife," Ameri said.

A caller to Reuters from the previously unheard of group Ansar Allah claimed responsibility for killing Hassani, accusing him of corruption. The claim could not be verified.

Analysts fear the turf war will escalate as the SIIC and the Sadrists try to strengthen their powerbases ahead of provincial elections expected in 2008.

"This is part of a settling of scores prior to the elections next year," said a senior Shi'ite official who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject.

He said Hassani had played a key role in facing elements which had taken up arms against the government, an apparent reference to rogue elements of the Mehdi Army.

Iraq's southern provinces have largely escaped the wave of sectarian violence between Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.

WORRYING PHASE

Intra-Shi'ite fighting in the south, however, would mark a new and more worrying phase that could draw in Iran. US officials accuse Iran of arming and training elements of Sadr's militia to kill US soldiers and act as a proxy to exert control over Iraq's weak and divided government.

Iraqi security forces took control of Muthanna, a largely desert province that borders Saudi Arabia, from British troops last July. It was the first of Iraq's 18 provinces to be handed back to Iraqi security control.

British forces have yet to hand over the neighbouring province of Basra, where rival Shi'ite factions, including SIIC and the Sadrists, are vying for control of its vast oil wealth, which accounts for most of the national government's revenues.