At least 10 people were killed and over 40 others injured in a car bomb attack in Iraq's southern Shiite city of Najaf on Thursday, a police source told Xinhua.

The car bomb exploded just a few hundred meters from the Imam Ali shrine, one of the most holy Shiite sites, said the source, adding that the mosque did not suffer damage.

The blast came amid a backdrop of soaring sectarian violence touched off by the Feb. 22 bombing of a key Shiite mosque in the northern Iraqi town of Samarra.

Thursday's bombing in the holy Shiite city of Najaf might elicit more sectarian reprisal attacks and has dealt another heavy blow to efforts toward the formation of a new coalition government in Iraq, raising fears for civil war.

Iraqi Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni leaders have still been haggling over the make-up of the new government, almost four months after the December general elections.

Thursday's bomb attack came as the trial of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and his seven aides on charges against humanity resumed in a Baghdad court.

A senior judge under Saddam regime was cross-examined over accusations of issuing death sentences of 148 Shiite men in the northern village of Dujail after an assassination attempt on Saddam's life near the village in 1982.

After a two-hour session, the court decided to adjourn the trial to April 12.

Source: Xinhua