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Iraqi parliament speaker resigns Iraqi MPs back foreign troop deal
(10 minutes later)
The speaker of the Iraqi parliament has announced he is resigning. Iraqi MPs have authorised the government to sign agreements allowing British and other non-US troops to stay on in the country after 2008.
The current turmoil in the parliament has delayed a vote on whether to allow non-US forces to remain in the country after the end of the year. They approved the move after speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani resigned at the demand of Shia and Kurdish parties, ending a political impasse.
The vote on the issue was postponed on Monday amid a row involving the speaker, Mahmoud Mashhadani. The US earlier struck its own security pact to keep troops in Iraq to 2011.
Failure to resolve the issue before the troops' current UN mandate runs out on 31 December would mean they had no legal basis to stay in Iraq. Foreign troops' UN mandate runs out on 31 December after which they require a new legal basis to be in Iraq.
NON-US FORCES IN IRAQ UK - 4,100Australia - 1,000Romania - 500El Salvador - 200Estonia - 40 Mr Mashhadani put off the vote on Monday after some MPs demanded his resignation. NON-US FORCES IN IRAQ UK - 4,100Australia - 1,000Romania - 500El Salvador - 200Estonia - 40
Shia and Kurdish lawmakers want him to resign after he failed to control a shouting match over the journalist who threw his shoes at President George W Bush, the Associated Press news agency said. Most of the non-US foreign troops currently deployed in Iraq are British.
The US has already struck a separate security pact to keep troops in Iraq to 2011. The British troops are due to leave Iraq by the end of July next year, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said last week.
Turmoil over the speaker led to a vote on the extension of the mandate - scheduled for Monday - being postponed.
Mr Mashhadani had been under pressure to quit since failing to control a shouting match over the journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush earlier this month.