Iraq's president agreed to delay a first session of the new parliament by a week beyond a constitutional deadline to March 19 in response to a request from the ruling Shi'ite Alliance, a presidential spokesman said. A senior Alliance official, Jawad al-Maliki, told Reuters that the bloc, which has close to a majority in the parliament elected in December, was determined to resist Sunni and Kurdish efforts to force it to drop Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. --SP 22 06 Local Time 19 06 GMT
