Baghdad - The Iraqi parliament approved on Tuesday a resolution that will allow non-US foreign troops to stay in Iraq, as speaker of parliament resigned during a closed-door emergency session with lawmakers.

The resolution will allow non-US forces to remain in the country beyond December 31, when a United Nations mandate permitting the presence of foreign troops in the country expires.

The current resolution, which allows these troops to stay until July 2009, covers the approximately 4,000 British troops in the country, as well as smaller forces from countries including Australia, Romania, and El Salvador.

Meanwhile, sources in the parliament told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani resigned on Tuesday after several blocs including the Kurdistan Alliance and the United Iraqi Alliance demanded that he do so.

Their demand followed a standoff in parliament during discussion of the withdrawal of non-US troops during the first half of 2009 that delayed Tuesday's vote.

Last week, al-Mashhadani threatened to resign when lawmakers argued over the Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush at a press conference on December 14.

He remained locked in dispute with the lawmakers, some of whom have accused him of insulting them in parliament. Kurdish and Shiite lawmakers had given al-Mashhadani until Tuesday to either resign or be voted out of office.

The sources told dpa that no was chosen to succeed him. Al- Mashhadani had told lawmakers before Tuesday's session that in return for his resignation he wanted to be named head of a human rights association, Al-Arabiya news channel reported.

He also asked that his successor be chosen from the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Bloc (Tawafuk), Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency reported.

On Monday, the Iraqi Criminal Court set the trial of Montazer al- Zaidi, the reporter who threw his shoes at Bush but missed, for December 31.

Al-Zaidi, a reporter for the Cairo-based Baghdadia channel, faces seven to 10 years behind bars if found guilty of "aggression against a president". (dpa)