In Sunday morning's bombing targeting police recruits, two men detonated explosives strapped to their bodies simultaneously, police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razaq said. The attack, killing 35 men outside the police station near western Baghdad's Nissur Square, was one of several blasts in the capital.

Police and police recruits, who are largely Shiite Muslims, have been regularly targeted by Sunni insurgents, al-Qaida in Iraq and other terrorist organizations aligned with it.

In Baqouba, the Iraqi army's provincial public affairs office said troops found 50 bodies dumped behind the offices of the provincial electric company.

Nineteen of the bodies were taken to the morgue in Baqouba and the army was waiting for U.S. bomb disposal teams, fearing the 31 other bodies behind the electrical company were rigged with explosives.

Abdul-Razaq said Baghdad police had found 25 bullet-riddled, handcuffed bodies in several parts of the capital. Dozens more bodies were found around the country.

Al-Maliki confirmed an Associated Press report 10 days ago about the coming government shake-up during a closed-door parliament session in which he responded to public charges by lawmakers that the government was complicit in the killing of members of the Sunni minority, two parliamentarians told AP.

Some Shiites had complained al-Maliki was being unduly harsh in dealing with Shiite militia members. Al-Maliki told the lawmakers that their speeches were affecting the security situation, according to Shiite legislator Bassem al-Sharif.

Dhafer al-Ani, of the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front, told AP that al-Maliki's comments "were disappointing because they were sidelining (Sunnis) and included threats." In remarks earlier in the week, al-Maliki blamed Sunnis alone for Iraq's violence.

On Saturday, al-Maliki told editors of local newspapers that Syria, which the US and his government accuse of allowing foreign fighters to cross into Iraq, wants to start afresh with Iraq.

"We have the same desire," al-Maliki said in a videotape of the remarks to Iraqi journalists on Saturday.

Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Labib Abbawi said Sunday that Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Moallem had accepted an invitation to visit Iraq, though no date was set.

The opening to Syria comes with the expected release in the United States of recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana.

It was believed the commission would recommend trying, among other things, to engage both Syria and Iran, Iraq's eastern neighbor.

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