Baghdad (AKI) -- Political and religious leaders from Iraq's Shiite and Sunni communities have unanimously condemned Sunday's car-bomb attacks on churches in the Kurdish city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq and in the capital, Baghdad, which killed three people and wounded nine. A car-bomb also exploded outside the Vatican embassy on Sunday, although no casualties were reported.

The first condemnations of the bombings of a Catholic church in Kirkuk and Catholic and Anglican churches in Baghdad came from Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Others followed from the radical Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr , the Badr Brigade and from former Iraqi prime minister, Iyad Allawi (a secular Shiite).

Later on Monday, the Muslim Ulema Council also condemned the bombings and warned that such acts jeopardised national security. "If anyone thinks these attacks can form a response to the recent Danish cartoons, they are very wrong. This is not the way to deal with the newspaper that has offended the prophet Mohammed," the Council said in a statement.

Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper has caused outrage among some Muslims in the Middle East by the publication of 12 caricatures of the prophet Mohammed, depicting him as a stereotypical Islamic terrorist. Saudi Arabia last week recalled its ambassador to Denmark for consultations.

Sunday's blasts were apparently co-ordinated, and took place within 20 minutes of each other, Iraqi police said. Three of the bombs went of in Baghdad, while a further two were detonated in Kirkuk. In Baghdad, St Joseph's Catholic church in the suburb of Sinaa and an Anglican church in the eastern Nidhal area were hit. In Kirkuk, a bomb exploded at the Catholic Church of the Virgin Mary, as well as the Kirkuk Orthodox Church. They were the first attacks against christian churches since December's parliamentary elections.

Churches in Iraq have been the target of previous bombings. In August 2004, a series of attack targeting churches in Mosul, northern Iraq, and in Baghdad, killed at least 12 people and injured dozens.

There are some 800,000 Christians in Iraq - about three percent of Iraq's population of 26 million.