World condemns Iraq attack

Australia, which sent troops to help oust President Saddam Hussein, said the bombing "shows there are some people on earth who are so wicked and evil that nothing can be done but to confront them".

"What was the UN doing in Iraq? It was providing food, it was providing shelter, it was providing humanitarian assistance," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today. Now "a terrorist... has gone and attacked the people who were in Iraq to help."

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The victims came from around the world -- including the United States, the Philippines, Egypt, Britain and Canada. Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil, the chief UN official in Iraq was among those who died.

"Those who killed him have committed a crime, not only against the United Nations but against Iraq itself," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement, calling Vieira de Mello "an outstanding servant of humanity."

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, facing criticism at home for supporting the war, said, "We will not allow terrorists to weaken our resolve in bringing about a better Iraq."

France, which pledged its full support for the United Nations in Iraq, vigorously condemned the attack. "Acts as odious as this can only prompt indignation and unreserved condemnation," President Jacques Chirac said.

"China condemns the violent attack," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told the official Xinhua News Agency.

Pope John Paul II sent his condolences to the United Nations and relatives of the victims and called for all those engaged in violence to "abandon the ways of hatred".

East Timor has lost a "unique and unforgettable friend", President Xanana Gusmao said today after receiving news of de Mello's death.

Russia called the attack a "barbaric act" that was "aimed at undermining the already difficult process of postwar stabilization in Iraq".

The European Union foreign and security affairs chief, Javier Solana, said the bombing was a "despicable act... against people who are working for Iraq's future and an attack against the international community's determination to reconstruct Iraq."

Syria and Lebanon, among the Arab countries that had fiercely opposed the US invasion, expressed concern about the consequences of an attack on the United Nations, seen by many Arabs as a counterweight to US power in the world.

"This criminal... act should not influence the UN's role in helping the Iraqi people restore their freedom and independence," a Syrian Foreign Ministry official told the Syrian news agency.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, a sharp critic of the US role in Iraq, said his organisation "expresses its solidarity with the United Nations and demands that the international community support the UN mission in Baghdad and ensure its protection".New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark described Vieira de Mello's death as "a shocking loss" that "robs the United Nations of one of its finest workers".