Bombs killed at least 25 people in Baghdad today, police said, in separate attacks that underlined the security challenge facing Iraq's still incomplete government.
A bomb hidden in a motorcycle exploded outside a Shia mosque in the Tunis district of the capital this evening, killing at least 11 people in a nearby sandwich shop.
Police said the mosque was empty so the target was unclear in the blast, which also wounded eight people.
It was one of a number of attacks across the country, including two car bombs in Baghdad - one aimed at police commandos that killed five civilians and another in Shi'ite east Baghdad which took the same number of lives.
Those explosions wounded at least 20 people and police said another bomb killed at least four people and wounded nine at a Baghdad bakery.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is trying to fill the interior and defence ministry posts to complete a government announced last week, told Iraqi television he expects to submit the names to parliament on Saturday.
Political sources said the main Shia and Sunni Arab alliances had been exchanging names of their candidates. The Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front denied media reports the new culture minister from their bloc had already quit.
Maliki, a tough-talking Shia Islamist, has vowed to use "maximum force" to wipe out Sunni insurgents fighting to topple Iraq's US-backed leaders. He has also opened a door to negotiations with those willing to join the political process.
But he will be hard-pressed to convince Iraqis he can make quick progress in the fight against guerrillas comprised mostly of Saddam Hussein loyalists and al Qaeda militants led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Shaken Iraqis stood around examining burnt-out cars and shops where the car bomb aimed at the police detonated. "The bomb exploded and flipped a minibus. What can we do? We just try to earn a living," said shopkeeper Abu Mohammad.
The Baghdad government's closest allies, the United States and Britain, are eager to see Iraqi forces show they can handle security on their own so that their own troops can withdraw.
But the White House stressed tonight conditions on the ground in Iraq will dictate when US troops can pull out.