Explosion hits Baghdad as polls open for elections

BAGHDAD, Thursday (Reuters) A loud blast sounded across Baghdad moments after polls opened for Iraq's parliamentary elections on Thursday, witnesses said.

There were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage. Security for the vote, the first election for a full-term parliament since Saddam Hussein's fall, is extremely tight to minimise the threat of insurgent attacks.

It was not clear what caused the explosion, but it sounded like a mortar round aimed towards the fortified Green Zone complex, where Iraq's government is based and where senior politicians are due to vote. There have been relatively few bombings in the final days before the election, in stark contrast to the last polls held in January when there was a campaign of violence in the build up to the vote and on the day itself.

Iraqis vote for a new government in the hope it will end decades of suffering, boost living standards and pave the way for U.S.-led troops to leave, nearly three years after they invaded.

In the first election for a full four-year parliament since the fall of Saddam Hussein, 15 million Iraqis are eligible to vote and at least 10 million are expected to do so.

From the Gulf to the mountainous borders of Turkey and Iran, war-weary voters will file into more than 6,000 polling stations, ink their fingers to guard against multiple voting and drop their votes into plastic ballot boxes.

Security will be tight. About 150,000 Iraqi soldiers and police officers will be on the streets to prevent the suicide bombings and shootings which killed around 40 people on polling day at the last election on Jan. 30.

Nearly 160,000 U.S. soldiers are on hand to support Iraq's security forces, and although they aim to keep their distance from polling booths, they will intervene if needed.

President George W. Bush took the blame for going to war in Iraq over faulty intelligence but said he was right to topple Saddam and urged Americans to be patient as Iraqis vote.

"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. As president I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq, and I am also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities and we're doing just that," he said.

But in an interview with Fox News to be aired on Wednesday he said, "My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision" because he was deemed a threat and that regardless, "We are in Iraq today because our goal has always been more than the removal of a brutal dictator."