Four wounded were taken to the Al-Mawani hospital and five others to the general hospital, where one of them died from his injuries, medical sources said.

"A Gurkha hired by the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) was killed," a coalition spokesman told Agence France-Presse (AFP), without giving details on the circumstances of his death.

Gurkhas formerly with the British army have been hired out by a private security firm and are being used by the coalition, he said.

Unrest erupted as local inhabitants were enraged by the occupation forces' failure to restore order to the city including electricity black outs and fuel shortage.

"There is no fuel and our situation is terrible," said Abdul Karim al-Mussawi, 45, a construction worker.

"There are four protests in northern Basra. They have turned into some small rnrest. There has been an instance where some British soldiers came under fire, and they returned aimed shots," British military spokesman Major Charlie Mayo was quoted by AFP as saying.

He put the number of rioters at around 800 people.

On Saturday, several thousand people burned tires and lobbed rocks at British troops, who responded by firing rubber bullets to disperse the crowds.

At least seven soldiers and four Iraqi civilians were wounded in the melee, as the violence blew the lid off the notion that the British, whose patrol techniques were forged in strife-torn Northern Ireland, had found the secret recipe for keeping the peace.

Saturday's rioting started minutes after witnesses said a grenade was hurled at a British military truck near a filling station, where fed-up Iraqis waited in a long line for fuel.

However, the British said the initial rioting was directed at a gas station owner charging black market prices for fuel, but the rnrest then quickly turned on the British when they came to quell the disturbances.

Gasoline prices have soared from 150 dinars (10 cents) for 20 liters (5.3 gallons) to 12,000 dinars (eight dollars) in a region rife with smuggling of fuel.

It is believed that Kuwaitis have also been smuggling the cheap fuel out of Iraq, according to the BBC NewsOnline.

Mayo said troops were starting to make progress against the black market oil trade.

"We've got to find some fuel and we are going to get that fuel in some tankers and get out to the fuel stations and we'll maintain a presence at these fuel stations," said Mayo.

He said the disturbances started when one petrol station raised its prices to black market levels because the fuel was becoming scarce.

"We are going to make sure the fuel is sold at the correct price not the black market price.

"So people can have fuel for their vehicles and more importantly they can get diesel into their generators which can provide them with some electricity and, of course, air conditioning."

Order was restored on Saturday, August 9, when Muslim scholars appealed for calm, said the BBC NewsOnline.

It added the British army was going to approach the scholars again on Sunday to ask them to repeat their appeal.

Iraqis complain that the U.S.-British occupation forces failed to restore situation to order in the oil-rich country more than four months since rolling into Baghdad, leaving anti-American sentiments on the rife.

Earlier on Sunday, at least four U.S. soldiers were wounded and several military vehicles destroyed in fresh resistance attacks, amid rising calls for an end of occupation.

In the meanwhile, around 50 people took to the streets of Baquba, 60 kilometers (37 miles) northeast of Baghdad, on Sunday to demand the release of Iraqi prisoners of war in Iran and compensation for released POWs.

"We appeal to the world and the humanitarian organizations to demand the release of the Iraqi prisoners of war in Iran," read one banner.

Demonstration organizer Mahmud Hatem, himself a POW for nine years, said 8-10 thousands POWs were still in Iran, from the 1980-1988 war launched by Saddam Hussein's erstwhile regime in Baghdad against Tehran.