Another Iraq Car Bomb Kills 10

"It is a very simple, candid, frank message," Allawi said, describing what he'll say to leaders in neighboring countries. "It is that our cooperation must be founded on mutual interests and respect."

Allawi said his first round of travel would end before the 1,000-member Iraqi National Assembly convenes this month to select a smaller committee to serve as a kind of interim legislature. The committee will help chart Iraq's course toward national elections, planned for January.

Allawi called the assembly "a cornerstone step in the transition to democracy" and vowed that the elections would be held on schedule. Iraqi and U.S. officials have said they believe the insurgency will lose much of its political force once the country elects its own government, replacing the one arranged largely by the United Nations and the U.S. occupation authority.

Despite Allawi's assurances, the calm that immediately followed the handover appears to be over. Car bombings over two consecutive days have killed at least 14 Iraqi civilians, and insurgents renewed their attacks on senior Iraqi politicians by killing the popular governor of Mosul on Wednesday in a highway ambush north of Baghdad.

Insurgents also attacked two oil pipelines, one north of Baghdad and one in the far south. It appeared that neither attack would affect Iraq's oil production.

In Baiji, 120 miles north of Baghdad, insurgents set a pipeline along the Tigris River ablaze. U.S. military officials said the site is a frequent target. It is one of three pipelines that carry crude from Kirkuk to Iraq's largest refinery in Baiji.

Capt. Daniel Young, an engineer assigned to the 1st Infantry Division headquarters in Tikrit, said the cause of Thursday's fire was not known. But he said the Baiji refinery, which is operating at half capacity while undergoing scheduled repairs, usually stores enough oil to avoid a shutdown.

"Typically these breaks get repaired in about five days," Young said. "The refinery won't shut down because of it."

Correspondent Doug Struck in Tikrit contributed to this report.