President Jalal Talabani on Sunday threatened to pull out the Kurdistan coalition from government-formation negotiations if the National Iraqi List of Ayad Allawi was exluded from the talks. "The Kurdistan coalition will not participate in a government from which the Iraqi National List, headed by Ayad Allawi, is excluded," Talabani told a joint news conference with US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. He underlined necessity of involving all political parties in the negotiations to forming a government.

The President called for forming a national unity government. The National Iraqi List, meanwhile, lashed out at the independent electoral commission for allegedly neglecting many complaints about legal violations of elections. The commission "is not independent and unfair in its decisions," said the list in a statement. It added that the commission insisted on its ratification of elections' results despite "the forgery and violations."

Source: Kuwait News Agency