Iraqi MPs back foreign troop deal

Iraqi MPs have authorised the government to sign agreements allowing British and other non-US troops to stay on in the country after 2008.

They approved the move after speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani resigned at the demand of Shia and Kurdish parties, ending a political impasse.

The US earlier struck its own security pact to keep troops in Iraq to 2011.

Foreign troops' UN mandate runs out on 31 December after which they require a new legal basis to be in Iraq.

NON-US FORCES IN IRAQ UK - 4,100 Australia - 1,000 Romania - 500 El Salvador - 200 Estonia - 40

Most of the non-US foreign troops currently deployed in Iraq are British.

The British troops are due to leave Iraq by the end of July next year, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said last week.

Turmoil over the speaker led to a vote on the extension of the mandate - scheduled for Monday - being postponed.

Mr Mashhadani had been under pressure to quit since failing to control a shouting match over the journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush earlier this month.