The attacks pushed the death count to over 1,500 people killed in violence since April 28, when Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his Shiite- and Kurd-dominated government in a country under attack from an insurgency led by Iraq's Sunni Arab minority.

At least 14 other people were killed in attacks elsewhere overnight and into Sunday, and the body of kidnapped Iraqi karate association chief Ali Shakir was found floating in the Tigris river southeast of Baghdad.

In the deadliest blast Sunday, a suicide bomber blew himself up at an Iraqi military recruiting center at Muthana airfield near central Baghdad, killing 25 people and wounding 47, according to the U.S. military and hospital officials.

The explosion occurred just before 9 a.m. as about 400 would-be recruits were crowded outside the gate of the center, which had been hit several times before by suicide attackers.

In February, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd outside the recruiting center, killing 21 people and wounding 27.

The Iraqi Islamic Party - the country's largest Sunni political party - denounced Sunday's attack, saying "dozens of innocent Iraqis pay the price for these acts that we strongly condemn."

In the northern city of Mosul, a suicide car bomber rammed into a police convoy carrying Brig. Gen. Salim Salih Meshaal, killing four policemen and wounding three, police said. Meshaal was not injured.

A suicide car bomb also exploded in Kirkuk, killing at least four civilians and wounding 15, police said. The attack occurred on a highway near a hospital and municipal building and the force of the blast toppled a few trees and shattered windows in surrounding buildings.

The bomber used a Mercedes Benz and the target appeared to be civilians because no military or police convoys were nearby, authorities said. Most of the casualties were people headed to Kirkuk General Hospital, police said. Three of the wounded were hospital employees.

U.S. troops also blew up a car parked nearby rigged with a bomb apparently intended to cause more casualties as security forces arrived at the scene of the first blast.

A third car bomb was found near the bus station in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, and authorities evacuated the area while police said they were looking for two other car bombs in the oil-rich city.

In the capital, a roadside bomb struck a U.S. military convoy of six Humvees in the southeastern al-Rashid district Sunday, wounding five soldiers, said Sgt. 1st Class David Abrams, a Task Force Baghdad spokesman. They were taken to a military hospital in stable condition. Also Sunday, two suicide car bombers killed at least seven Iraqi customs officials along the Syrian border, the U.S. military said, forcing the temporary closure of the checkpoint.

The explosions occurred around 2:20 p.m. at the Walid border crossing point, said Marine Capt. Jeffrey Pool, a spokesman for U.S. troops in the western region of Anbar. He did not provide further details.

The porous Syrian border is considered the main entryway into Iraq for foreign fighters.

U.S. troops closed the border checkpoint on the Iraqi side after the blasts and authorities turned back 300 Iraqis trying to enter from Syria, according to a Syrian source who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

There are three legal border-crossing points between Syria and Iraq. The checkpoint at the frontier town of Qaim, however, has been closed for about a year for security reasons.

Other violence overnight and into Sunday killed at least 14 others in Iraq, including a Shiite family of eight killed in their sleep, a police colonel shot in Baghdad, two other policeman killed in the capital, a security official in Kirkuk and a civilian in Baghdad.

Masked gunmen also killed Ahmed Hassan, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, in front of his home in Mosul, said Abdul Ghani Botani, a KDP spokesman in Mosul.

The prime minister, meanwhile, held a news conference to salve relations with Egypt after comments made by Iraq's government spokesman that top Egyptian diplomat Ihab al-Sherif was likely on his way to meet with insurgents when he was abducted last week.

Witnesses have said al-Sherif was kidnapped while alone buying a newspaper in Baghdad a week ago. Al-Qaida in Iraq later claimed in a Web posting that it had killed the envoy.

"I don't have any information that the late Ihab al-Sherif has conducted a dialogue or was involved in any dialogue or any meeting," al-Jaafari said. "If what's being reported about an official comment is related to me, then I'm categorically denying that."

On Saturday, Egypt had demanded an explanation from Iraq.

Al-Sherif's abduction and attacks against Pakistani and Bahraini envoys have sent shockwaves through the diplomatic community in Iraq and raised concerns about a possible exodus of diplomats, especially Arab delegations. But the king of neighboring Jordan said the country would not bow to fears and would send its ambassador to Iraq soon.

Shakir, the Iraqi karate association chief, was abducted Thursday in Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. His body was found with several gunshot wounds in the city of Kut the following day, police Capt. Muthana Khalid Ali said.

It was not known why Shakir, a 38-year-old former Iraq karate and judo champion, was taken. Hundreds of Iraqis have been abducted during the last two years - some by insurgents for political and sectarian reasons and some by criminal gangs for ransom.

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