"I urge the MPs to speed up the culture of concord and participation, and not get caught up in a maze that would take us back to square one," Mashhadani, who is recovering from heart surgery, said during a brief one-hour session.

"The Iraqi people are looking at you and waiting for a solution regarding Kirkuk and the elections," the Sunni Arab speaker told the 160 MPs who attended the session of the 275-member house.

Mashhadani called for a meeting of the leaders of all the political blocs in parliament on Wednesday to discuss the provincial elections.

He also called for the formation of a joint committee of the leaders of the blocs in a bid to solve the dispute over the election bill.

MPs failed to reach agreement on the bill before the summer recess forcing the postponement of the provincial elections which had originally been scheduled for October 1.

Kurdish and Arab MPs could not reach agreement on the arrangements for the contested northern oil province of Kirkuk.

Washington sees passage of the local elections bill as a key benchmark in assessing the progress of reconciliation between Iraq's warring communities.

Political reconciliation is seen as vital if recent gains in security are to be sustained over the longer term.

Levels of violence are currently at a four-year low after the US military recruited Sunni Arab tribesmen and former rebels to the fight against Al-Qaeda.

Kurdish MP Muhanna Khalil told AFP that parliament would also consider other disputed bills during its next few sessions.

On the agenda are a long delayed new oil and gas law, and a proposed security pact with Washington to govern the US troop presence in Iraq beyond this year when the UN mandate runs out.

The oil bill has been held up in parliament since last year amid bitter wranglings between MPs over how to distribute the revenues among the country's 18 provinces.

Even as parliament struggles to reach agreement on the oil law, the oil ministry told AFP on Tuesday that it had reached agreement with Anglo-Dutch oil major Shell to form a joint venture to capture gas from fields in the southern region of Basra.

The 51:49 joint venture is the first such agreement giving a Western oil major a foothold in Iraq's huge energy reserves since executed dictator Saddam Hussein threw out foreign oil giants in 1972.

The proposed security deal with Washington is also expected to spark controversy among MPs.

Iraqi negotiators have told AFP the two sides have already agreed to withdraw US soldiers from cities by June 2009 and from the country by 2011.

However, they are still hotly debating issues such as whether US forces should remain immune from Iraqi laws, have the right to detain Iraqi citizens and over who would command future military operations.