The current head of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, Ezzedine Salim, was killed in a car-bomb explosion, Iraqi politicians said.

"He was in a convoy that stopped at the entrance to the Green Zone when the explosion happened. Ezzedine Salim was killed in the explosion," Hamid al-Bayati, spokesman for the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRII), told AFP.

Imad Chebib, vice-president of the pro-U.S. Iraqi National Accord and a fellow-member of the Governing Council, said: "He died as a result of the car bomb explosion against his convoy. Some guards were killed with him."