Iraq's parliament to meet tomorrow

Iraq’s Parliament will convene tomorrow after a three-day delay despite Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s refusal to step aside and break the deadlock over a new government, officials said today.

The parliament media office said the session will be held at 4pm (1pm Irish Time) tomorrow.

Speaker Adnan Pachachi confirmed that a session would be held but began a closed-door meeting and was unavailable for further details.

The 275-member assembly had been set to convene on Monday but agreed to a delay to give Shiites time to resolve the dispute over their nomination of al-Jaafari to head the new government.

Sunni and Kurdish parties have rejected him.

Al-Jaafari said again today he will not step down.

But US and British officials urged the session go ahead and decide on other posts, including parliament speaker and the vice presidents, to try to build momentum to resolve the political deadlock.