Four people were killed and dozens injured when a man on a bicycle packed with explosives blew himself up in front of a mosque during Friday prayers in the eastern Iraqi town of Ba'qubah, CNN quoted US-led coalition officials as saying.

It quoted a 4th Infantry Division officer said an improvised explosive device was inside a propane tank strapped to cycle.

He said 36 people were wounded, four seriously.

Ba'qubah is a predominately Sunni town about 64km north of Baghdad. The area has been a centre of violent resistance to the US-led occupation of Iraq.

On December 25, two US soldiers were killed in a mortar attack on a camp near the town.

The following day, a US soldier was killed and another injured in a roadside bomb attack near Baquba. A second soldier was killed while trying to defuse a bomb outside the town.