BAGHDAD - THE Iraqi parliament on Monday delayed a crucial vote to determine the future of British and other non-US foreign troops because of a row over the assembly speaker, a senior lawmaker said.

It was not immediately known when the vote would now be held, although parliament is due to go into recess on Tuesday and a UN mandate governing the presence of foreign troops in Iraq expires on Dec 31.

The issue has become overshadowed by calls by MPs for speaker Mahmud Mashhadani to be sacked after he described some lawmakers as 'sons of dogs' during a rowdy session of parliament last week.

'The crisis is at its peak as the majority of MPs want to see Mashhadani sacked after he insulted them last week,' said Sheikh Jamal al-Butikh, who heads the Iraqi National List in the 275-seat assembly.

Parliament was due to vote on a resolution that would mandate the government to sign bilateral deals with the countries that still have troops on Iraqi soil, mainly British.

The United States, which supplies 95 per cent of foreign troops in Iraq, has already signed a Status of Forces Agreement with the Baghdad government, under which its combat forces can remain in the country until the end of 2011.

'Parliament will decide on whether to authorise the government to take all necessary steps to bring about the withdrawal of the British, Australian, Romanian, Salvadoran, Estonian and Nato troops completely from Iraq not later than July 31,' a parliamentary official had told AFP earlier on Monday.

But an emergency meeting was convened after 54 MPs out of 150 deputies present in parliament had signed a petition calling for Mr Mashhadani's dismissal.

Most of the signatories belong to the two main parliamentary blocs, the Shiites United Iraqi Alliance and the Kurdish Alliance and some independents.

On Wednesday, the first reading of a bill on the future of non-US forces took place amid uproar in the aftermath of the protest by an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at visiting US President George W. Bush earlier this month.

During that session, Mashhadani lost his temper, branding some MPs as 'sons of dogs'. He announced his resignation, but later retracted it.

During a surprise visit to Iraq last week, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that his country's troops would wrap up their mission by the end of May and later said that all but 400 would be out by the end of July.

There currently 4,100 British troops in Iraq concentrated around Basra airport in the south.

Asked what would happen if no agreement was in place by Dec 31 when the UN mandate expires, British Defence Secretary John Hutton said on Sunday: 'That would be a very serious situation and obviously we couldn't let it happen, but I don't think it will happen.

'We have contingency plans. The safety of our guys out there is our top priority. There will have to be an agreement, a proper agreement, before our guys are out on the streets.'

Mr Brown's predecessor Tony Blair was widely criticised for his decision to join the United States in the March 2003 invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, who was executed in December 2006 for crimes against humanity.

A total of 178 British soldiers have died in Iraq since the invasion, 136 of them as a result of hostile action.

Parliament had also been due to decide whether to suspend a decree that gave foreign troops and defence contractors immunity from prosecution in Iraq, one of the mosty controversial aspects of their presence for ordinary Iraqis.

Meanwhile, the commander of the US-led military in Iraq said that US forces will be deployed to southern Iraq to replace the departing British troops.

'It is important that we provide some forces to lend oversight in southern Iraq,' General Raymond Odierno told AFP, without giving details on the number to be deployed or a timetable.

'Clearly, the Iraqi security forces are playing the major role in security for the area. We want to maintain ongoing training and continuity of communications with the Iraqi security forces to ensure that we can respond to their requests for assistance,' he added. -- AFP