Car bombs killed 30 people in Iraq and wounded more than 70 on Sunday as political leaders closed in on a deal to form a national unity government. In the latest violence, at least 21 people were killed and 52 wounded when a suicide bomber detonated a car on a crowded street in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, police and doctors said.

Around the same time, two cars exploded in the capital.

A suicide car bomber hit an Iraqi Army patrol in the mainly Sunni northern district of Aadhamiya, killing eight people and wounding 15 more. Both soldiers and civilians were among the casualties.

A second car bomb exploded at a busy intersection close to the offices of a government-funded newspaper in northern Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding five.

In Karbala, the police chief told a news conference only two people had died in the bombing. But police and hospital officials who declined to be identified stood by their casualty figures and said rescue work was continuing four hours later.

The blast decimated crowds going about their business at the start of the working week, close to a partially built Shiite mosque and some 500 meters from the main bus station.

Separately, Interior Ministry sources said 42 bodies had been found in the last 24 hours in the capital alone, including eight found dumped near Kindi Hospital in central Baghdad. The figure is in line with levels of violence seen since sectarian bloodshed spiked up after the bombing of a Shiite shrine on February 22.

Sectarian bloodshed has prompted warnings that Iraq is sliding toward civil war, and added urgency to efforts by political leaders to form a unity government that can reverse the trend.

Iraq's southern second city, Basra, was calmer on Sunday after a curfew and a heavy security presence after violence greeted the apparent shooting down of a British military helicopter on Saturday.

Youths chanting slogans in favor of the Mehdi Army militia of anti-occupation Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had thrown rocks and petrol bombs at British troops cordoning off the site. A local health service official said five Iraqis had been killed and 42 wounded in the clashes.

British officials said they were still investigating the crash and believed that up to five Britons might have died in the incident.

British Defense Secretary Des Browne played down the unrest, blaming it on a militant minority, and said plans for British troops to leave Iraq would depend on other factors.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani wrote to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, describing the deaths of those on the helicopter as a "vile crime."

In the latest political development, Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki said he expected to name a Cabinet shortly.

Representatives of the Shiites, Kurds, Sunnis and others were meeting again on Sunday. On Saturday, the Shiite vice president said he expected a deal "in the next few days."

MPs in Iraqi Kurdistan voted for a single administration to run their autonomous region.

Until now, Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was responsible for running Suleimaniyeh province, and regional President Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party ran Irbil and Dohuk. The single administration is expected to reaffirm Kurdish territorial claims, especially on the ethnically mixed oil hub of Kirkuk.