Electoral officials said results from the nation's March 7 vote should be certified within a week, with totals from all but one province sent for ratification. A recount in the lone exception, Baghdad, is more than half done.

The release of full results could still hit snags as the status of several successful candidates remains in doubt over their alleged ties to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's banned Baath Party.

However, Christopher Hill, the US ambassador to Baghdad, said the pace of political progress had "quickened" in the past week and an end was in sight.

"The counting (in Baghdad) is going faster and we do expect it to be over by the end of the week," he told reporters at a briefing in the Iraqi capital, noting that certification of results before the end of May was possible.

"Obviously, certification is not the beginning of the end but rather the end of the beginning."

Hill said the merger of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law bloc and the religious Iraqi National Alliance (INA) on Wednesday had created a "Shiite mega party," but noted that the choice of a new premier was unclear.

"The issue of who will be the prime minister is yet to be determined and obviously it will be a subject of great competition in the weeks ahead," he added.

Earlier on Sunday, Qassim al-Abboudi, a spokesman for the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), told AFP that results for 17 of Iraq's provinces, all except Baghdad, had been sent to the supreme court for approval.

Abboudi added that three of the eight seats reserved for minorities would also be sent to the supreme court for ratification, with five Christian seats and seven national compensatory seats being held back.

The results were sent to the court at the request of the presidency council, made up of President Jalal Talabani and Iraq's two vice presidents.

If all of those results are ratified, 245 of parliament's 325 seats will have been finalised.

Preliminary nationwide results have shown that the Iraqiya bloc of secular ex-premier Iyad Allawi won the most seats with 91, followed closely by Maliki's State of Law with 89.

The INA, a coalition led by Shiite religious groups, finished third with 70.

State of Law and the INA's coalition falls four seats short of a parliamentary majority.

Authorities have, however, been carrying out a manual recount in Baghdad, Iraq's biggest electoral constituency with 68 of the 325 parliamentary seats up for grabs, since last week.

IHEC chief Faraj al-Haidari, speaking on Iraqiya television, said 6,191 ballot boxes from a total of 11,000 in Baghdad had been recounted and that the job would be completed on Friday.

Preliminary results showed Maliki won 26 seats in the capital to Allawi's 24, while the INA won 17.

Full results from the parliamentary election were initially expected to be ratified in early April, but counting delays, multiple complaints and appeals from political groups have caused setbacks.

While the battle for power has centred on Maliki and Allawi's competing blocs, Iraq's Kurdish parties on Sunday announced a pact to negotiate jointly for posts in the new Baghdad government.

"We have agreed on a full programme for a Kurdish delegation to go and negotiate in Baghdad on our participation in the formation of the new government," said Massud Barzani, president of Kurdish-ruled northern Iraq.

The Kurdish parties, mainly Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party and Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, won 59 seats in the March election.

earlier related report
Iraq's Talabani briefs Egypt's Mubarak on election latest
Cairo (AFP) May 9, 2010 - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani briefed Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak on developments in Baghdad where a new government has yet to emerge after the March disputed parliamentary polls.

Talabani told reporters he informed Mubarak on "the situation in Iraq and developments following the elections," and he also thanked Egypt for its "balanced position towards Iraq."

Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit met Talabani on Saturday and called for the creation of a representative coalition government that includes all political forces, in order to give credibility to the political process, his spokesman Hossam Zaki said.

Abul Gheit stressed "the importance of a government that would represent all Iraqi political movements and communities so (Iraqis) can feel that the political process is inclusive and comprehensive, which would give credibility to Iraq and its future government at home and internationally."

Full results from the March 7 parliamentary elections were initially expected to be ratified in early April, but counting delays, multiple complaints and appeals from political groups have set this back.

The Iraqiya bloc of secular former premier Iyad Allawi won the most seats in the vote with 91, followed closely by sitting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law Alliance with 89.

The Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a coalition led by Shiite religious groups, finished third with 70 seats.

State of Law and the INA announced on Wednesday that they had struck a deal to form a coalition to squeeze out Allawi, but with their alliance still falls four seats short of a parliamentary majority.

The final number of seats gained by each party could yet change, however, as the election commission is conducting a manual recount of votes in Baghdad.

Results from all but one province were sent for ratification on Sunday and a recount in the lone exception, Baghdad, was half-way done.

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