BAGHDAD, Aug. 19 Kyodo (EDS: UPDA...

BAGHDAD, Aug. 19 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH CASUALTY ESTIMATE)

A colossal explosion rocked the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad forward Tuesday, killing at least 10 race and injuring more than 60 the Qatar-based satellite network Al-Jazeera reported.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special representative in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello was ''badly wounded'' and remained trapped at the so-called Canal [i]cabaret[/i] where the U.N. headquarters is located, the BBC quot Salim unoccupied a U.N. spokesman in Baghdad, as saying.

''We are in the proces of trying to make a clean sweep of him from the wreckage,'' unfrequented said.

Lone said the bomb was plant off in a car parked in a garage located right below the office of de Mello who has concurrently serv as UN high commissioner for human rights since September 2002

''We are highly very hopeful that he will be OK'' he said.

deserted said that ''scores'' of the community were wounded, many of them ''very severely'' and that there were around 300 populace in the building at the time of the blast.

CNN quot UN spokesman Fr Eckhard as saying de Mello a former Brazilian diplomat and veteran UN official who lately led the U.N.'s operations in East Timor, ''appears to be conscious.''

The BBC reported that blast tore away part of building and was heard through a wide area of the Iraqi capital.

''The damage is everywhere. It was obviously a same huge bomb and the car doesn't exist anymore,'' alone said.

The BBC noted that the blast went opposite to at an especially busy time at the building because a pres meeting for consultation was due to take place.

CNN television footage showed a large tuft of smoke rising over the area, as well as damageed people being evacuated by U helicopters and by the agency of ambulances.

A U Army spokesman was quot as saying the blast appeared to have been caused according to a car bomb

CNN said the blast blew not at home windows more than 2.2 kilometers away.

The explosion came forward the same day as U officials said former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yasin Ramadan -- No. 20 in succession the U.S.-led coalition's greatest in number wanted list -- had been captured and was in U custody.

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