Iraq MPs resolve row blocking 2008 budget

Iraqi lawmakers on Sunday resolved a dispute over budget allocations for the autonomous region of Kurdistan, removing the main obstacle holding up passage of the 2008 budget, legislators said. A vote on the $48 billion budget was expected to take place on Monday, they said.
Lawmakers have refused to ratify the 2008 budget because of rows over spending for the provinces, particularly how much should be given to Kurdistan in the country's north.
Iraqi officials have complained that failure to pass the budget was holding up vital spending at a time when Washington is urging the government to jumpstart the economy to take advantage of sharp falls in violence in recent months.
Saadi al-Barazanchi, a senior Kurdish lawmaker, said legislators had agreed to keep spending for Kurdistan at 17 percent of the budget this year as in the draft, but to review the figure for 2009 once a new census had been carried out.
"We agreed this percentage will be reconsidered next year, based on a census that should be conducted by the government for all provinces," Barazanchi told Reuters. The current draft has allocated 17 percent of budget funds to Kurdistan based on current population estimates.
But Shia and Sunni Arab lawmakers say Kurdistan should get about 13 percent because that is a more accurate reflection of the Kurdish population in the absence of any recent census.
Sami al-Askari, a senior Shia lawmaker close to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, confirmed agreement had been reached to keep spending at 17 percent for Kurdistan for this year. Another contentious issue has been whether the budget should be used to pay for Kurdistan's Peshmerga security forces.
Askari said lawmakers agreed to let Maliki decide whether these units were part of the Iraqi army or a local security force. If they were considered part of the army, then the budget would cover their costs.
Iraqi lawmakers are debating other measures, including laws governing the distribution of power between Baghdad and Iraq's 18 provinces and another that would free thousands of mainly Sunni Arab detainees from Iraqi jails.
Freeing prisoners has been one of the preconditions for the Accordance Front, the main Sunni Arab bloc, to return to cabinet after it quit last August over a number of differences with Maliki's Shia-led government. The amnesty law to be voted on would exclude those sentenced to death or convicted of major crimes such as killings, terrorism or kidnapping.