The election commission said a majority of voters took part in the election in most provinces, in what Prime Minister Iyad Allawi described as a victory over terrorists.

"We still don't have a final number but we can say it was better than expected. The final percentage could be between 60 and 75 percent," said Harith Mohammed Hassan, deputy chief of the Independent Election Commission of Iraq (IECI).

"The reports from the provinces are very good. In most of the provinces a majority of voters came out."

At least 38 civilians as well as members of the US and Iraqi security forces were killed on voting day despite a massive security clampdown, but US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair both hailed the election as a resounding success.

Rebels who had vowed to turn election day into a bloodbath staged suicide bomb attacks in Baghdad and hit polling stations with mortars but the scale of the attacks was less than expected.

The day was also marred by the crash of a British Royal Air Force transport plane that killed 10 military personnel.

Earlier reports put the death toll as many as 15 British military personnel when the transport plane they were travelling in crashed in central Iraq, military sources said.