Two foreign workers were killed and another 15 injured when a rocket exploded early this morning near to the United Nations’ compound in Baghdad.

A UN spokeswoman declined to give the nationalities of the victims, saying that they worked for a catering company that provides services to the UN mission.

“No UN national or international staff were killed or injured as a result of the attack,” the world body said in a statement.

The rocket struck at about 6.15am, sending out a loud boom across Baghdad’s Green Zone where the UN offices are located.

The Green Zone, which also contains Iraqi Government buildings and a variety of foreign embassies, had enjoyed a long lull in rocket and mortar attacks following a Government crackdown last April on Shia militias, accused of being the main culprits. During March and into April, however, such explosions had been occurring multiple times on a near-daily basis.

The renewed rocket fire came just two days after Iraq’s Parliament approved a security pact with the United States that allows US forces to remain in the country for another three years after a UN mandate expires at the end of 2008.

Moqtada al-Sadr, the Shia cleric who commands the al-Mehdi Army militia, is fiercely opposed to the agreement because he wants US troops out immediately.

Followers of the anti-American cleric, who is believed to be living in Iran, have hoisted black flags on houses, mosques and Sadr offices in the Baghdad Shia slum of Sadr City to protest US-Iraqi deal.

The United Nations closed its offices in Baghdad after they were hit by a huge truck bomb in August 2003. The blast killed 22 people,including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN envoy to Iraq. Foreign staff have been returning to the current UN compound, however, thanks to a drop in the violence.

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