国际英语新闻：U.S. vice president to chair high-level UN Security Council meeting on Iraq

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will chair a high-level UN Security Council meeting on Iraq later this month to "recognize the very real progress" that country has made so far, Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN who also holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council for December, told reporters here on Thursday.

Rice made the statement as she was briefing reporters here at a press conference on the Security Council's program of work for the month of December. She took over the rotating Council presidency from British UN Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, who held the rotating presidency for November.

"It's an important opportunity for the international community to recognize the very real progress that Iraq has made both in terms of government formation as well as the significant steps that have been taken to terminate its chapter 7 obligations," Rice told reporters.

The high-level event on Iraq is scheduled for Dec. 15.

On Nov. 25, Iraq's re-elected President Jalal Talabani officially named Maliki as prime minister-designate, who since then will have 30 days to form his cabinet.

As stipulated by the Iraqi constitution, if Maliki fails to pick a cabinet within the required time of 30 days, the president will have 15 days to nominate someone else to form a government.

The prime minister-designate's government and its programs will also have to win the approval of an absolute majority in the Council of Representatives.