A US soldier was killed when he was trying to defuse a roadside bomb in central Baghdad, the US military said on Sunday.

The explosive device was placed on a telephone pole beside the road near al-Haswah, 40 km south of Baghdad, before it exploded when the soldier got near to it.

The death brings to at least 198 US soldiers killed by hostile fire in Iraq since US President George W. Bush declared the major combat over on May 1.