Iraq's politicians had not a significant reaction to US President George W. Bush's announcement on Tuesday that he would withdraw 8,000 combat troops from the country by February next year.

One of the few to make a statement on the development, parliamentarian Osama al-Najafi, said drily on Wednesday that "We know that this is merely election propaganda for the (US) Republican Party."

Meanwhile, unidentified gunmen killed an Iraqi Christian civilian in western Mosul on Wednesday, according to the Voices of Iraq news agency (VOI).

Also in Mosul, police found four bodies in different areas of the city. The first two bodies were unidentified, but it was reported that the third body belongs to a Christian Iraqi and the forth body belong to a policeman, VOI said.

In Salaheddin province in the north of the country, a car bomb exploded on Wednesday injuring two members of the Kurdish Security Forces. The bomb was detonated as soon as they got into a car in al- Tour district, 170 kilometres north of Baghdad.