The provincial council of Iraq's Sunni Arab majority Salaheddin province voted on Thursday for it to become an administratively and economically autonomous region similar to Kurdistan, a statement said.

However, for the decision to take effect, it must still be approved in a referendum by residents of the province.

"We announce that the majority of the provincial council voted to approve the declaration of Salaheddin as an administrative and economic region," the council's secretary general, Niyazi Oglu, said in a statement.

But Ahmed Abdullah, the province's governor, said the main reason for the vote was a campaign of arrests carried out by Iraqi security forces in the province without consultation, raising the possibility that the council's decision was a vote of protest rather than a serious bid for autonomy.

"The main reason behind this move is the arrests operation undertaken by the central government against the sons of the province, which was without coordination or consultation with us," Abdullah said.

According to Tikrit police, Iraqi security forces arrested 30 alleged members of now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein's Baath party on Sunday evening, as part of a multi-province sweep against suspected members.

Abdullah also accused the central government of depriving the province of financial resources, saying that was another reason for the decision.

According to Article 119 of the Iraqi constitution, "one or more governorates shall have the right to organise into a region based on a request to be voted on in a referendum."

The Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, which is made up of Arbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah provinces, is currently the country's only autonomous region.

Baghdad bombings kill at least 10
Baghdad (AFP) Oct 27, 2011 - Twin roadside bombs in Baghdad killed at least 10 people and wounded 35 on Thursday, security officials said, in the biggest attacks since the United States said it would withdraw all its troops from Iraq.

The officials also said two other people were killed and 13 wounded in other gun and bomb attacks across the Iraqi capital on Thursday.

A defence ministry official put the toll from the bombings in Baghdad's northern Urr neighbourhood at 10 dead and 32 wounded, while an interior ministry official said 12 people were killed and 45 wounded in the blasts.

The interior ministry official said the first bomb exploded at around 7:00 pm (1600 GMT). Following a common pattern in Iraq attacks, a second bomb was set off after security forces and other people gathered at the scene.

"The first bomb was not that powerful, but the second was strong," said Wissam Nauhas, an eyewitness who said he was out buying bread for dinner.

"After the second explosion, policemen fired into the air and ambulances started to arrive."

There were two police and two soldiers among the dead, and three police and two soldiers among the wounded, the interior ministry official added.

The bombings are the deadliest attacks since October 13, when 18 people were killed and at least 43 wounded in twin blasts in the Sadr City area of Baghdad.

Those bombings came a day after a spate of attacks in the capital mainly targeting security forces, including two suicide car bombs minutes apart against police stations, killed 23 people and wounded more than 70.

The Thursday attacks are also the deadliest to hit Iraq since US President Barack Obama announced on October 21 that all US soldiers will depart the country by the end of 2011.

The US had engaged in protracted and ultimately failed negotiations with Iraq about a post-2011 US military training mission here.

The issue of immunity from prosecution for US trainers was the main sticking point, with Washington insisting its troops be given immunity, while Baghdad said that was not necessary.

The roughly 39,000 US soldiers still in Iraq are now in the process of drawing down, after a nearly nine-year campaign that has left thousands of American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi dead, and costs billions of dollars.

Brigadier General Rock Donahue, head of US Forces-Iraq's engineering directorate, said on Wednesday that there are just 15 American military bases left in Iraq, down from a peak of 505.

Violence in Iraq is down markedly from its peak in 2006 and 2007 but attacks remain common. A total of 185 people were killed in violence in September, according to official figures.