Iraqi parliament 'may have to sort out govt stand-off'

Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari was today quoted as refusing to abandon his bid for a second term to break the deadlock over a new government.

Some Iraqi leaders said parliament may have to decide his future.

However, Shiite officials said they were reluctant to dump the issue on parliament until there was a comprehensive deal among all ethnic and religious-based parties, including an agreement on who will be the new president.

Talks on a new unity government stalled after Sunni Arab and Kurdish officials said they would not accept al-Jaafari, who won the nomination of the dominant Shiite bloc in balloting among Shiite politicians last February.

Al-Jaafari told The Guardian he was rejecting calls to give up the nomination of his Shiite bloc “to protect democracy in Iraq".

He said the decision had been reached “by a democratic mechanism” and that it had to be respected.

Al-Jaafari added that the Iraqi people “will react if they see the rules of democracy being disobeyed”.