At least 25 people have died in a car bombing and mortar attack on a busy commercial district in the centre of Baghdad.

An interior ministry official said that at least three mortar rounds were fired after the car bomb was detonated in the Karrada district.

At least 45 people were reported injured in the attacks

A witness said two buildings had been badly damaged in the blasts and shops along the street had caught fire.

The mortars were fired across the Tigris river into predominantly Shia Karrada from the mainly Sunni al-Dura area, a security source said.

Although there have been bombings in Karrada before it has been one of the few relatively stable districts of the capital.

In the Mansour district of western Baghdad gunmen killed four security guards outside a Sunni mosque in a drive-by shooting.

The violence two days after President George Bush approved plans to send more US and Iraqi troops onto the streets of the capital to combat rising sectarian violence.

An average of 100 people a day have died in sectarian violence in the past few weeks.

PHOTO CAPTION

Iraqi policemen hold their weapons as they drive away with remains of people killed in a bomb attack in central Baghdad July 27, 2006. (REUTERS)