U.S. Vice President-elect Joe Biden has arrived in Baghdad for talks with Iraqi officials.

U.S. Vice President-elect Joe Biden (L) talks to Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the presidential palace in Kabul, 10 Jan 2009

Biden traveled to Iraq from Afghanistan, where he met with President Hamid Karzai and visited international soldiers in the southern province of Kandahar.

Also Monday, police in Iraq said bombs targeting Iraqi security forces killed at least eight people in Baghdad.

Officials say two bombs exploded nearly simultaneously as a police patrol passed by in the New Baghdad district in the east of the capital. The blasts killed three civilians and wounded 10 others.

Another roadside bomb struck an Iraqi military truck that was carrying ammunition in the Yarmouk district. Three soldiers inside the truck were killed and four civilians were wounded.

A fourth bomb went off in Baghdad's central Karrada district, killing at least one civilian and wounding several others. A fifth bomb killed another civilian in northern Baghdad.

The U.S. military has been transferring security responsibilities to the Iraqi government, as part of a new deal that calls for U.S. forces to withdraw from the country by 2011.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.