国际英语新闻：Iraqi parliament approves power-sharing deal, as Sunni-backed bloc attends session

BAGHDAD, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi parliament on Saturday approved a power-sharing deal signed earlier by the rival political blocs, as the Sunni-backed political bloc returned to parliament session.

The second parliament session, which was chaired by the Sunni speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, started in the afternoon after about three hours of delay as the leaders of the political blocs were carrying out discussions over accusations of breaking power- sharing political deals previously struck with the cross-sectarian bloc of Iraqia, headed by the former prime minister Ayad Allawi.

The lawmakers unanimously approved all the deals the leaders of the political blocs had struck during their meeting before the session, including finding a legal mechanism to lift the ban from Saleh al-Mutlak, Dhafir al-Ani and Rasim al-Awadi, who are leading political leaders in the Sunni-backed political bloc of Iraqia.

The ban was previously imposed on the four Iraqia leaders by the Accountability and Justice Commission, which is in charge of vetting candidates for ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath party and preventing them from participation in the political life.

Lifting the ban from the Sunni leaders was a concession by the Shiite alliance to Iraqia to accept participating in a partnership government led by Nuri al-Maliki who was in fierce struggle against Allawi who gained narrow winning in the March 7 parliamentary elections ahead of Maliki.

The power-sharing deal also included drafting a law for the yet- to-be-created National Council for Stategic Policies, which gives the Iraqia leader Ayad Allawi, who is nominated to head it, more power on security issues.

However, the approval on the political deal was only initial as the details of the deal will have to be discussed and approved separately through the parliament later.

The parliament session, which was attended by Iraqia lawmakers two days after most of them walked out of Thursday's session, was calm as many of the members of parliament participated in the discussions of the scheduled subjects in the session.

On Thursday, the members of parliament convened and the newly- elected President Jalal Talabani verbally named Nuri al-Maliki as prime minister-designate, despite the walk-out of some 60 MPs from the cross-sectarian bloc headed by Allawi.

According to the Iraqi constitution, Maliki will have 30 days to form his cabinet.

Nujaifi, then ended the session and set Nov. 21 the date for the next session, after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.