US President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki agreed Monday to hold formal talks next year to decide the future of US forces in Iraq and other thorny issues, the White House said.

An Iraqi journalist said on Monday gunmen went on a killing spree in his Baghdad home, murdering seven children and four adult relatives, but Iraq’s interior ministry denied the attack took place.

 Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel said those countries which have been invited by the US to attend the so-called Middle-East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland are not able to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli issue.