BAGHDAD - FORMER premier Iyad Allawi's secular bloc won the most seats in Iraq's March 7 parliamentary election, edging incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition, official results showed on Friday.

Mr Allawi's Iraqiya list won two seats more than Mr Maliki's State of Law Alliance but failed to clinch an overall majority, with Mr Allawi pledging after the results to 'work with all sides' to form a government.

Mr Maliki, however, refused to accept the results, telling a press conference in Baghdad following the release of the figures that they remained 'preliminary.' 'The election results are not final,' said the prime minister, who has previously called for a nationwide manual recount of votes, alleging irregularities in the counting process.

Security officials have warned a long period of coalition building could give insurgents and Al-Qaeda a chance to further destabilise Iraq, with deadly bomb attacks northeast of Baghdad on Friday illustrating their concerns.

The results were announced shortly after twin bomb attacks in the central town of Khales killed 42 people and left 65 others wounded, according to security and medical sources.

The US ambassador to Baghdad and the top American military commander in Iraq, in a joint statement, gave their blessing to the outcome. 'We support the findings of international and independent Iraqi observers, who ... have found that there is no evidence of widespread or serious fraud,' said ambassador Christopher Hill and General Ray Odierno.