The head of Saddam Hussein's tribe was blown up by a bomb attached to his vehicle north of Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.

Major Hassan Emhimid, a police officer in the nearby town of Tikrit, said a bomb appeared to have been fixed to the undercarriage of Sheikh Ali al-Neda's car.

"Sheikh Neda was the victim of assassination. When he left his house there was a bomb in his car that killed him and a driver and wounded two of his guards," said Major Ahmed Subhi, head of a counter-terrorism unit in Salahuddin province.

A spokesman for Salahuddin governor Hamad al-Qaisi confirmed the sheikh, head of the Albu-Naser tribe, had been killed.

The blast killed Neda after he left his house in Saddam's hometown of Awja and was travelling along the highway to Tikrit, 150 km (95 miles) north of Baghdad, the spokesman and police said.

Qaisi imposed an indefinite curfew in Awja, which was sealed off by police who were searching for suspects, the spokesman said.

It was Neda, a member of Iraq's minority Sunni Arab sect, who took possession of Saddam's body for burial after the Iraqi leader was executed in December 2006 for crimes against humanity. Gunmen shot dead Neda's brother in 2006.

On the first anniversary of Saddam's hanging, Neda had called on Iraqis to forget the past and work for national reconciliation. "We have to build a future without revenge," he had said. - Reuters