Iraqi officials say they expect the Bush administration to respond to Iraq's proposed amendments to a draft security pact after Tuesday's U.S. presidential election.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have been trying since May to finalize a deal that would allow U.S. troops to remain in Iraq after a U.N. mandate expires at the end of December.

Iraq is proposing changes to a draft agreement to give Baghdad more authority over U.S. troops and guarantee that Iraqi territory will not be used to attack other countries.

In violence Sunday, a bomb killed two Iraqi children as they played in the northern city of Kirkuk, while another bomb in the capital Baghdad killed a policeman.

Elsewhere, the U.S. military says its troops killed two suspected al-Qaida militants during an operation Saturday in the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar.

The military also says it detained 11 suspected al-Qaida members in operations across Iraq on Saturday and Sunday. Separately, the U.S. military says its troops captured six suspected Iranian-backed militants Sunday in the southern Iraqi town of Nasiriyah.

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