Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has rejected a demand by speaker of the House of Representatives Osama al-Nujaifi for withdrawing confidence from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, an MP said.

Jala TalabaniTalabani officially rejected the demand "due to lack of reasonable grounds", said Salman Mousawi, who is an MP of State of Law Coalition (SLC), led by Maliki.

Major political leaders have met three times, in Erbil, Najaf and Dokan (Suli), to end the current political tensions which they deem are the result of Maliki's "monopoly" of power.

Kurdistan's President Massoud Barzani, Iraqiya List Leader Ayad Allawi, Sadr Current Leader Muqtada Sadr, and House Speaker Nujaifi (of Iraqiya List) are among those who demand National Alliance (NA) replace Maliki.

The NA however has not named any candidates.

"It looks like that Iraqiya List has not counted for the nature of the relations between the Kurdistan Blocs Coalition (KBC) and NA and expected that the current dispute between the region (Kurdistan) and the center (Baghdad) will lead to a struggle of the two sides," Mousawi said.

Disputes and incriminations over a host of issues including the legality of Kurdistan oil contracts, Kurdistan and its border guards budgets and oil and gas law, have strained the relations between Erbil and Baghdad governments. Some are deep-rooted disputes as the demarcation of Kurdistan borders.

There are reports that allege some 200 MPs are ready to vote to withdraw confidence from PM.

SLC MPs refute such reports, saying ranks within the Iraqiya List and the entire components of NA, except the Sadr Current, support Maliki.


AKnews