BAGHDAD - IRAQIS on Monday prepared for a massive party in Baghdad to celebrate the imminent withdrawal of US troops from cities, towns and villages, as the conflict-torn nation takes sole charge of its security.

The US pullout, under a bilateral security accord signed last year, will be completed on Tuesday, which has been declared a national holiday.

In the wake of several massive bombings that have killed more than 200 people this month, however, security forces are out in force in the capital and motorcycles, favoured by some bombers, have been banned from the streets.

In a measure of the seriousness of the threat, all police and army leave has been cancelled.

'Our expectation is that maybe some criminals will try to continue their attacks,' said Major-General Abdul Karim Khalaf, the interior ministry's operations director and spokesman.

'That is why orders came from the highest level of the prime minister that our forces should be 100 per cent on the ground until further notice.'

Iraqi Premier Nuri al-Maliki warned earlier this month that insurgent groups and militias were likely to step up attacks in the run-up to the June 30 deadline in a bid to undermine confidence in Iraq's own security forces.

There have been several large bombings since, the deadliest of which came in the northern city of Kirkuk on June 20, when a truck loaded with explosives was detonated, leaving 72 people dead and more than 200 wounded.

The toll from a bomb in a market five days ago in the Shi'ite district of Sadr City in north-east Baghdad was also bloody, killing at least 62 and wounding 150. -- AFP