More than 130 Iraqis died in bomb attacks and a spate of execution-style killings today as the country's Kurdish President struggled to stem the slide into civil war.

All police and army leave was cancelled and curfews extended in major cities after yesterday's destruction of the Golden Mosque in Samarra set off a wave of reprisals and exposed sectarian divisions at every level of society.

In the worst atrocity, 47 men who had joined a joint Shia and Sunni demonstration against the bombing of the Samarra mosque were stopped by gunmen after leaving the protest in a convoy of buses. All were shot dead and dumped in a ditch at the side of the road beside their burnt-out vehicles.

Even before the discovery of their bodies, at Nahrawan east of the capital, an official at a Baghdad morgue said that 80 bullet-ridden corpses had been brought in overnight - double the normal number.

Police said the bodies of more than men were found dumped at eight sites, most of them in predominantly Shia parts of Baghdad. They included some 20 bodies found in the Shia Muslim slum neighbourhood of Sadr City.

Early this morning, gunmen in three cars raided a house in Dora, a predominantly Sunni neighbourhood of Baghdad, seizing seven men from one family. Their bodies were found three hours later scattered along the main road; all had had their hands bound and been shot in the head.

In Baquba, north-east of Baghdad, 16 people were killed, including eight soldiers, in a bomb attack on an Iraqi army foot patrol. Four American soldiers on patrol in the town of Hawija died when their convoy hit a roadside bomb.

President Jalal Talabani called leaders of the country's main political groups together for emergency talks on the crisis, but a major Sunni Muslim alliance boycotted the meeting. The Iraqi Accordance Front, one of the main parties in the Sunni list, said that the Shia-led Government had failed to protect Sunni targets or its forces had even colluded in some attacks.

"We were waiting for a clear denunciation by the Shiite coalition regarding the criminal attacks on Sunni mosques and some offices belonging to the Iraqi Islamic party, but this did not happen," said Rashid al-Azawi of the Iraqi Islamic party, which is part of the Accordance Front.

Dr Salman al-Jumaili, another Sunni politician, said that the Sunnis were demanding an apology for yesterday's attacks. "We want a clear condemnation from the Government which didn’t do enough yesterday to curb those angry mobs," he said. "There was even a kind of co-operation with the government security forces in some places in attacking the Sunni mosques."

Mr Talabani pressed ahead with the meeting at the presidential palace despite the Sunni boycott. After discussions with Shia Muslim leaders, Kurds and members of a smaller Sunni group, he told a televised news conference that if all-out war came "no one will be safe".

The attack on al-Askariya shrine, destroying one of Islam's most famous domes, marked the first time that sectarian violence had targeted one of Iraq's central religious symbols. The attack has been blamed on Sunni Muslim insurgents linked with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The reprisals began within minutes and an organisation of Sunni clerics said today that 168 Sunni mosques had been damaged or destroyed.

Among those who called for protests at the mosque's destruction was Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most senior Shia cleric who has long been a force for moderation, although many demonstrators ignored his call that Sunni mosques should not be targeted.

Among the victims of the violence was a young Iraqi television reporter famed for her frontline reports. Atwar Bahjat, 30, was sent by the Dubai-based news channel Al-Arabiya to cover the Samarra bombing but was seized along with two of her crew north of the town. Their bodies were discovered this morning.

"The hand of treason in Iraq has silenced a media voice that was simply carrying out its professional mission," said a statement by the Saudi-owned channel. Its Qatar-based rival al-Jazeera, for whom Ms Bahjat had also worked, dedicated extensive coverage to the killing as well.

The violence comes against the backdrop of a continuing political stalemate in Baghdad, where party leaders have been arguing over the make-up of a long-term government since parliamentary elections two months ago.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, was in Baghdad earlier this week to try to push for a broad-based non-sectarian government, but if the violence cannot be brought under control meaningful progress may be impossible.

Analysts said that Iraq was in the grip of its worst sectarian violence since the US-led invasion of 2003 and all-out civil war was now a very real possibility.

"Given the difficulties the negotiations have already faced because of sectarian differences, the whole process could collapse. Polarisation is increasing, not decreasing," said Joost Hilterman, analyst for the International Crisis Group.

"The danger of civil war is extremely serious. There have been efforts by the insurgents to start civil war for a couple of years now, but they have not succeeded because of institutional restraints. Those restraints have begun to erode."

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