Related: Turmoil rocks Iraq as election drawing near

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi says there are what he calls pockets of Iraq that will be too unsafe for voting in a Jan. 30 election, as guerrillas killed a dozen people in attacks.(Photo: Reuters)

    BEIJING, Jan. 12-- Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi says there are what he calls pockets of Iraq that will be too unsafe for voting in a Jan. 30 election, as guerrillas killed a dozen people in attacks.

    Allawi made the comment at a press conference Tuesday in Baghdad.

    He promised to spend 2 billion US dollars to beef up Iraq's security forces to combat insurgents trying to derail the vote.

    Earlier, a suicide car bomber killed seven policemen in Tikrit, in northern Iraq, and gunmen shot dead eight people in a minibus south of Baghdad.

    In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan says President Bush spoke to Allawi by telephone about preparations for the election and agreed it should go ahead as planned.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)