Baghdad - A deadly explosion ripped through a meeting hall in the Iraqi ministry of public works on Monday during a visit by Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi, security and defence officials said.
State television said 10 people were killed in the blast and several wounded - officials gave lower initial tolls - but a member of the vice presidential party said that the Shiite leader was himself unhurt.
"We were just arriving at the ministry when we heard explosions and saw smoke, so we turned round and left. The vice president is at home and he's OK," said Abdel Mahdi's aide, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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Baghdad's Yarmukh Hospital said it had received the corpse of one woman after the apparent attack and was treating 26 wounded people.
"The injured told us that the explosion detonated in the hall itself, during a visit by both the vice president and the minister," a medic said.
The public works ministry is run by Minister Riyad Ghraib who, like Abdel Mahdi, is a member of Iraq's largest Shiite political coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA).
Another senior UIA member, Najaf provincial governor Assaad Abu Gillel, told AFP: "I just called the vice president and the minister and they're both unhurt."
In theory, Abdel Mahdi could take over as acting head of state if 74-year-old President Jalal Talabani, who was in hospital in Jordan on Monday suffering from fatigue, dies or becomes unable to govern.
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