Blair said in an interview with Abu Dhabi television monitored here that "the Baghdad street market bombings, for example, we are sure that the first one is not coalition forces, we are still trying to check out the second one."

Around 30 people were wounded on March 26 when two missiles fell on a market. Baghdad has said allied fire was responsible, while British officials have previously suggested Iraqi missiles might have malfunctioned and fallen back on the city.

Meanwhile, a total of 30 civilians were killed and 47 wounded in a second Baghdad market bombing on March 28.

"I understand why, when people see the carnage and the bloodshed, they feel very angry about it," Blair said.

"But I ask people not to treat these reports as correct until they are actually proven. There will be innocent civilians that are killed but we have done everything we possibly can to minimise this," he added.

The United States had previously acknowledged it might have killed some civilians with air strikes.

A statement by the US Central Command said coalition warplanes used precision-guided weapons to attack nine Iraqi surface-to-surface missiles and launchers that were placed in a residential neighborhood of Baghdad.

"Most of the missiles were positioned less than 300 feet (90 meters) from homes," said the statement. It made no direct mention of deaths in the text, but the headline read: "Civilian damage possible."

SPACE.WIRE