At least seven people have been killed and 31 injured by a mortar attack on a mainly Shia eastern suburb of Baghdad, security officials say.

Women and children are said to be among the dead and wounded and a number of houses were damaged in the area, close to the giant Shia slum of Sadr City.

Police said the mortars were fired during clashes between US forces and militiamen.

The attack came as Iraqi leaders met to address a mounting political crisis.

With nearly half the cabinet posts now empty, these are the first political talks of their kind in two months, BBC World Affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge reports.

Prisoner issue

Some progress is said to have been made in the first round of talks on Saturday at which Iraq's Sunni Vice-President, Tareq al-Hashemi, raised the issue of detainees held without charge.

Most such detainees are believed to be Sunnis.

Mr Hashemi had personally visited a tented prison camp in eastern Baghdad, talking to detainees pressed against the wire mesh walls and promising to work for better treatment for them.

His office released video footage of the visit afterwards.

The vice-president's party is part of a Sunni political grouping that has withdrawn ministers from the government, in part over the detention issue.

BBC correspondent notes that the government has been speaking of political paralysis in the country, hampering the passage of important legislation and clearly making it no easier to tackle the violence.

President Jalal Talabani described the first round of talks on Saturday as one of the most important meetings he had ever attended.

PHOTO CAPTION

Man rushes injured baby to hospital in Sadr City after the mortar attack on 19 August