A large fire broke out in Iraq's central bank building in Baghdad early today.
Police said the cause was unclear and that flames damaged the top four floors of the six-storey building, including the bank governor's office.
The fire started just after midnight and took more than six hours to put out. Witnesses said flames ripped through most of the building.
Guards at the central bank prevented cameramen and photographers taking pictures of the building, which is surrounded by concrete blast walls in central Baghdad.
It is not in the heavily protected Green Zone compound, where key government ministries are located.
The central bank has had a low profile during the upheaval in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003. It announced last week that annual inflation in Iraq had fallen dramatically, hitting 12 per cent in December 2007, compared with 65 per cent a year earlier.
