BAGHDAD - Twin bombings in Baghdad at the weekend killed 153 people, the health ministry said on Thursday, adding that of the more than 500 people wounded six or seven remained in hospital.

"The final toll is 153 people dead," ministry spokesman Sabah Abdullah said.

"It is difficult to know what proportion were men, women or children," he added, alluding to the terrible disfigurement wrought on the bodies of the dead by Sunday's vehicle bombings at the justice ministry and the Baghdad provincial governor's office.

An Al-Qaeda front organisation, the Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attacks, the US-based SITE monitoring organisation reported.