Baghdad - Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi on Wednesday returned the country's elections law to parliament, asking it to raise the number of seats reserved for expatriate Iraqis.

Al-Hashemi asked the parliament to reconsider the paragraph of the law which sets the number of seats reserved for expatriate Iraqi voters, a source in his office said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The vice president, a Sunni Muslim, requested that parliament allocate 15 per cent of the seats to represent expatriate Iraqis, most of whom are thought to be Sunnis. The current draft allocates 5 per cent for Iraqis abroad.

"The vice president's objections may lead to a delay in the elections, because the various parliamentary blocs will require time to come to an agreement on this article," legislator Taha Dara told the German Press Agency dpa.

Al-Hashemi's move comes after lawmakers last week reached a compromise on voting in the disputed northern city of Kirkuk, that allowed elections to be scheduled for January 18, ahead of the constitutionally mandated deadline of the end of January.

The Kurdish Regional Government has likewise threatened to boycott the polls if the number of seats allocated to the two provinces that together make up the semi-autonomous Kurdish zone in northern Iraq is not increased. (dpa)