Death Toll in Iraq Blast Climbs Over 100

Bush said the United States was still committed to the June 30 deadline for turning over power and formally ending the American-led occupation.

"We've discussed ways to make sure that by working together, the Iraqi people can be free and the country stable and prosperous and an example of democracy in the Middle East," Bush said. "And the United Nations does have a vital role there."

The attack on the PUK office was filmed by the party's television station. Cameraman Saadi Sultan Mameh told The Associated Press that he saw a man dressed in beige trousers and a blue-and-white checkered shirt shuffle through the crowd to greet PUK officials on the first day of the Islamic holiday Eid al-Adha.

As the man shuffled into the camera's frame to shake hands with Kurdish official Bakir Jola, Mameh heard a terrific explosion and "my camera lens went red with blood."

"All those who died were my friends and colleagues," Mameh said Tuesday from a mattress on his living room floor where he was recovering from leg wounds. "We were like family."

"I have watched the clip more than 50 times," Mameh, 27, said. "The only gratification it gives me is that I was able to film the moment so that the truth would be known. So that al-Qaida would be exposed. There would be evidence."

Two days after the attacks, this Kurdish city was grieving from the loss. Black banners announced the deaths of loved ones, and nearly every mosque was filled with mourners attending wakes for the victims.

"Immortality for the martyrs," proclaimed one large black banner beneath the great Assyrian fortress in downtown Irbil. Passers-by pause to read the death notices.

"I want to see who was martyred in the explosions," said Hassan Hussein, 20. "I wonder what that person who did this was thinking when he blew himself up. Who was he?"

"It was Ansar," volunteered Nezam Othman, 20.

No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, but many Kurds blamed Muslim extremists - particularly Ansar al-Islam, an armed group that operates in the Kurdish enclave and is believed allied with al-Qaida.

Sheik Abdul-Ghani al-Bazzaz, head of the Kurdistan Islamic Movement, condemned the bombings, saying Islam rejects the killings of innocent people.

He said he "cannot confirm or deny" if Ansar or al-Qaida were behind the bombings, saying it had become popular to "point the fingers at them" following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

Al-Bazzaz said many groups including Saddam Hussein loyalists were carrying out attacks in Iraq because "Iraq's borders are wide open."