Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Monday he would convene parliament in six days, Reuters reported. "I will call today for parliament to hold the first session on the 12th of the current month since it is the last day that the constitution allows," Talabani said. According to the Transitional Administrative Law, the U.S.-sponsored interim constitution still in force, lawmakers must first elect a speaker of parliament and then a president and two deputies, who in turn will name a prime minister to form a new government within two weeks. But there is no timeframe for these posts to be filled. The new constitution, approved in a referendum last October, does give a timetable, but it will take effect only after the country's first four-year government is formed.
