Baghdad bomb hits shopping area

About 100 Iraqis a day are dying in the civil violence

A bombing in the centre of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, has killed at least 10 people and injured 29, police say.

An official said the bomb was strapped to a motorbike parked near the busy al-Rashid shopping area. Shops were set ablaze by the blast.

The attack came as the UK's outgoing ambassador in Iraq, William Patey, warned that civil war was a more likely outcome in Iraq than stable democracy.

Iraq is facing a surge of violence with about 100 people being killed daily.

Thursday's attack apparently targeted fruit and vegetable vendors and commercial stalls, the news agency AP quoted police Lt Ahmed Mohammed Ali as saying.

The agency also quoted a taxi driver as saying he saw the motorcycle explode and hit a vegetable vendor and two stalls run by two brothers. "One sold tea and the other sold cigarettes. I saw a woman burning," said the man, who did not identify himself.