Polling stations across Iraq closed at 5 p.m. (1400 GMT) on Sunday, but voters waiting in line to vote will still be allowed to cast ballots, election authorities said.

The voting stations "will not close their doors until all the people in the queue have voted, said Farid Ayar, a spokesman of the Independent Electoral Commission.

Some 5,300 polling centers in the country opened their doors toIraqi voters at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT), and an election official earlier said at least 72 percent of eligible Iraqi voters had turned out by 2 p.m. (1100 GMT) nationwide.

The percentage of registered voters who had gone to the polls in some Baghdad neighborhoods reached 95 percent, said Adel al-Lami, a member of the Independent Electoral Commission.

But he offered no overall figures of the actual number of Iraqis who have voted.

Around 13 million Iraqis, about half of the population, registered to vote in the election, while some eligible voters did not register due to intimidation or because they were boycotting the polls.

The figure announced by al-Lami was higher than most expected.

Earlier in the day, Carlos Valenzuela, the United Nations' chief electoral official in Iraq, offered a much more cautious assessment, saying turnout appeared to be high in many areas, but it was too early to know for sure.

Several hours after the beginning of the voting, some politicalparties trying to keep track of the voting said turnout in the election might reach 50 percent.

"The reports we are receiving indicate that the turnout will hit more than 50 percent. Iraqis are looking at these elections asan issue of dignity," said Planning Minister Mehdi al-Hafedh Hafedh, whose secular Independent Democrats had sent supervisors to monitor the voting process.

Oil Minister Thamir al-Ghadhban, a leading candidate in Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's electoral list, also said his party'smonitors were reporting a big turnout.

"We are seeing huge numbers across Iraq who want to defeat terror with their vote," he said, "I will not be surprised if turnout exceeds half."

In Iraq's Kurdistan and the mostly Shiite south, the turnout isoverwhelming. However, few Iraqis are voting in Sunni areas due tolack of security and calls for a boycott from some Sunni parties hostile to the US military presence.

Meanwhile, a group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wantedman in Iraq, claimed responsibility for suicide attacks on several polling stations in Iraq. Related:

"Lions from the martyrs' brigade of the al-Qaida Organization for Holy War in Iraq attacked several polling stations in Baghdad and elsewhere," said a statement posted on an Islamic website.

According to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, 30 civilians and six police died in attacks during the election and 96 people, including 83 civilians and 13 police, had been injured.

The toll did not include suicide bombers who died carrying out attacks, the ministry said.

Also on Sunday, a US soldier was killed in an attack in the restive province of Al-Anbar.

The Iraqi parliamentary election began at 7:00 a.m. (0400 GMT) on Sunday to start a new course of the oil-rich but violence-shattered country.

The 275-seat National Assembly will be formed by proportional representation of votes with a one-year mandate. It will choose a transitional government and draft a permanent constitution put fora national referendum by Oct. 15.

A new government and parliament will then be elected through another ballot by the end of this year under the guidance of the constitution.