Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, speaker of Iraq's parliament, announced resignation on Tuesday, the official Iraqia TV reported.

Mashhadani offered the resignation at a special parliament session late in the day, which was accepted by the majority of the parliament members, according to the report.

Deputy Speaker Khalid al-Attiya will temporarily take Mashhadani's post. His replacement could be found after the parliament returns to session early next year.

Mashhadani, a Sunni, took office in 2006. His feisty character invited criticism among lawmakers.

During a parliament session last Wednesday, chaos and arguments erupted over the issue of Muntadhar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at the visiting U.S. President George W. Bush. During the arguments, Mashhadani got very angry and insulted some MPs as "sons of dogs."

The vote over the resolution on the staying of foreign troops except the U.S. one was postponed Monday as the Kurdish bloc and a major Shiite union insisted that Mashhadani should resign.

Soon after Mashhadani's resignation, lawmakers passed a resolution, authorizing the government to take necessary measures to address the withdrawal of non-U.S. troops in Iraq by the end of next July.

Iraqi governmet demands troops from other foreign nations to pullout by the end of next July.

The Iraqi parliament rejected last Saturday a cabinet plan to address the withdrawal issue through legislation and, instead, asked for negotiations on a agreement similar to the one reached with Washington.

The UN decided Monday not to extend multinational force mandate in Iraq next year.

Iraq and the United States have reached a deal allowing U.S. troops to stay in the war-torn state until the end of 2011.

Besides the United States, Britain has the largest military presence of some 4,000 troops currently stationed in Iraq. And the rest of the contingent are from Australia, El Salvador, Estonia and Romania.

Most of the British troops are set to end their mission and go home by the end of July, with about 400 remaining to train the Iraqi security forces.

(Xinhua News Agency December 24, 2008)