U.N. operations in Iraq were scaled down sharply after a truck bomber attacked the world body's Baghdad headquarters on Aug. 19, 2003. The attack killed 23 people, including the top U.N. envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
As Annan arrived, a car rigged with explosives detonated in the New Baghdad neighborhood as crowds shopped there, killing eight, police Lt. Col. Hassan Chaloub said.
Despite the ongoing violence, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani predicted that British troops could leave Iraq by the end of 2006.
"We don't want British forces forever in Iraq. Within one year _ I think at the end of 2006 _ Iraqi troops will be ready to replace British forces in the south," Talabani said in the interview with Jonathan Dimbleby for Independent Television, to be aired Sunday.
He said, however, that immediate withdrawal "would lead to a kind of civil war."
Meanwhile, a Web site operated outside the country by Baath Party officials announced the death of al-Douri, the No. 2 figure in the ousted regime.
"In the pure land of Iraq, the soul of comrade Izzat Ibrahim returned to God on Friday at dawn," said the Web site statement, which described al-Douri as the "field commander of the heroic resistance."
Abdul-Rahman Mohammed Ibrahim, nephew and son-in-law of al-Douri, said he had no independent confirmation of the death, but some people close to Saddam outside the country were treating it as accurate.
Later, however, a statement on a second Web site insisted al-Douri was alive and apologized "for publishing a statement announcing the death of brother Izzat al-Douri. May God extend his life."
There was no way to determine which version was correct.
U.S. officials believed al-Douri, one of Saddam's oldest and closest associates, played a key role in organizing resistance that erupted in 2003 against the U.S.-led coalition and was instrumental in forging links between remnants of the ousted regime and Islamic extremists.
Shiites and Kurds dominate the security forces, while most of the insurgents are Sunni Arabs. Attacks such as the Saturday car bomb have consequently sharpened tensions between majority Shiites and minority Sunni Arabs at a time when U.S. and other officials have been trying to promote national unity ahead of Dec. 15 elections.
