BAGHDAD, July 22 (UPI) -- The United States and Iran will meet this week for a second round of talks on Iraq, even as U.S. officials say Iranians are worsening the situation in Iraq.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Sunday the United States and Iraq will meet Tuesday, and U.S. Embassy officials in Baghdad confirmed the date, The Washington Post reported.

The U.S. military said Sunday it had detained two people in connection with alleged weapons smuggling, the Post said.

The U.S. military said the two were arrested Sunday east of Baghdad near the Iranian border, in a pre-dawn raid that also turned up armor-piercing roadside bombs the suspects were allegedly smuggling into Iraq.

"The suspects may be associated with a network of terrorists that have been smuggling Explosively Formed Projectiles, other weapons, personnel and money from Iran into Iraq," the U.S. said in a statement.

The United States and Iran held talks May 28 -- their first direct talks since 1980. Tensions have mounted since the May session, as Washington and Tehran exchange accusations about their roles in the deteriorating security in the region, the newspaper said.

Ruling party wins Turkish elections

ISTANBUL, Turkey, July 22 (UPI) -- Turkish voters Sunday handed the ruling party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a victory in national parliamentary elections.

The Justice and Development Party took 47 percent of the vote, preliminary results indicated. That's well over the 34 percent the party received in the 2002 election -- and is being taken as a rejection of the secular establishment in Turkey, The New York Times reported.

Sunday's election had been called early to ease a political crisis over the Islamic-oriented ruling party's choice of presidential candidate, Voice of America reported. It came as Turkey faces increasing violence by Kurdish rebels and division over the role of Islam in society.

The three-month run up to the election was peaceful, but some feared the vote could deepen conflicts within the Muslim-dominated nation of 73 million people, the VOA reported.

The new Parliament will be forced to deal with the fallout from the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, involving escalating rebel violence, predicted Mustafa Turgut, 47, an industrial worker in Ankara.

"We have shed enough blood because of terrorism in this country, and everybody is so frustrated with the issue that the new government will definitely have to deal with the PKK first," Turgut said. "We cannot bear with it anymore."

Senator working on Bush censure

WASHINGTON, July 22 (UPI) -- A U.S. senator said Sunday he is working on a censure resolution against President George W. Bush, saying the administration has "assaulted the Constitution."

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that his resolution will address two areas: the administration's run-up to the war in Iraq and its "outrageous attack on the rule of law" regarding its surveillance program and "their attitude about torture."

"This administration has assaulted the Constitution," Feingold said. "We need to have on the historical record some kind of indication that was has happened here is."

Feingold says a censure resolution is a moderate course. It wouldn't tie up the chambers with an impeachment, but would ensure a historical record is available, he said.

The resolution hasn't been drafted, Feingold said, adding he's spoken with Senate leadership. Regarding whether any Republicans would support the resolution, he said, "I think this might be an opportunity for some Republicans who may be uncomfortable with taking steps such as impeachment to say, you know, somehow we have to reflect the fact that so much of this has gone wrong."

Reid: GOP playing games

WASHINGTON, July 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate majority leader says Republicans engaged in gamesmanship when voting on the withdrawal of the U.S. soldiers from Iraq.

Also during CBS' "Face the Nation," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., praised Republicans who have broken ranks with the Bush administration regarding the war.

Reid sought to recast the perception that Democrats are blocking Republican-backed proposals, after the Senate GOP stymied a vote on troop withdrawal from Iraq.

"We offered on many occasions the opportunity for the Republicans to let us vote" on several Republican and bipartisan amendments, but the "Republicans in the Senate would not allow us to vote on those."

Reid said Senate Republicans should emulate the actions of members such as Olympia Snowe of Maine "and do the right thing" to exert bipartisan pressure on the president into changing the course in Iraq.

Snowe offered her own take.

"We should be sending an unconditional message that this is the final window of opportunity for the Iraqi government to initiate the political benchmarks that they view to be essential to national reconciliation," she said.

It's "unfortunate," she said, the Senate is not reflecting the will of the American people on the war.