Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- As many as 63 people were killed by a suicide attack in Baghdad that targeted day laborers looking for work in the Iraqi capital.

The Associated Press reported the toll, citing Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Abdul-Karim Khalaf. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's party said earlier that 57 people had been killed in the incident.

A bomber posing as a contractor lured the laborers to his vehicle in the center of the capital, and then blew it up, Talabani's party said on its Arabic-language Web site. A second bomb exploded within seconds in a car parked about 30 yards away, AP reported.

``A coach pulled up to the square and the driver was asking for laborers. Then he exploded the vehicle,'' witness Ali Hassan said in an interview broadcast on the Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based Al-Arabiya television channel. The attack wounded about 236 people, AP said, citing Khalaf.

Baghdad is the center of a sectarian conflict between Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority and the Sunni Muslim minority. More than 200 people were killed in the mainly Shiite district of Sadr City by a series of car bombings on Nov. 23. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Dec. 3 the conflict in Iraq is ``much worse'' than the 1975-1990 civil war in Lebanon.

Iraqi police found a bomb near the entrance of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, 105 kilometers (65 miles) north of Baghdad. A bomb disposal team from the U.S.-led coalition removed the detonation wire and fuse before the device exploded, causing slight damage, the U.S. military said in an e-mailed statement.

``This bomb was built to cause maximum damage and because of the heroic action of the Iraqi police, this damage was minimized,'' said Lieutenant Colonel Viet Luong, commander of 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division.

New Course

The Samarra mosque is one the holiest sites in Shia Islam. Iraq's sectarian war intensified after its dome was damaged extensively by a bomb in February. In the aftermath, Sunni politicians accused the police and Shiite-run Interior Ministry of complicity in Shiite death squad killings.

President George W. Bush yesterday began a week of meetings with his foreign-policy and military advisers to discuss a new course in Iraq. White House spokesman Tony Snow said yesterday ``there's still some work to be done'' before any decision on adjustments to Iraq policy.

Bush today met Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, leader of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, to discuss the conflict. The leader of Iraq's most powerful Shiite party, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, met Bush in Washington on Dec. 4.

Iran, Syria

The Iraqi president yesterday rejected the recommendations made in Washington by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. In a Dec. 6 report, the group advised dialogue with Iraq's neighbors Iran and Syria, embedding U.S. military personnel as trainers of the Iraqi forces, and withdrawing American units from combat operations by early 2008.

The report dealt with Iraq ``as if we were an emerging colony,'' Talabani said.

In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen killed a television cameraman working for the Associated Press. The journalist, Aswan Lutfalla, a father of two, was killed in an industrial area in the east of the city, the PUK said.

The Iraq conflict may be the most dangerous war in history for journalists. At least 89 journalists and 37 media support workers have been killed in Iraq since March 2003, according to the New York City-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Withdrawal Sought

A USA Today/Gallup poll released yesterday showed 55 percent of Americans want to see the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq within a year. Eighteen percent thought that will happen. Fewer than one in five had ``a great deal'' of trust in Bush to ``recommend the right thing.'' The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

More than 2,900 U.S. military personnel have died in Iraq since the start of hostilities in March 2003.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he will hold a national reconciliation conference on Dec. 16 in an attempt to unify divided political groups to ``save the nation from a difficult period of terrorism, armed groups and extrajudicial killings that are spreading chaos in the country.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Robin Stringer in London at rstringer@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 12, 2006 16:35 EST