Baghdad  - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's list garnered 38 per cent of the votes in Baghdad in preliminary election results, Iraq's Independent Higher Electoral Commission said Thursday.

Results of Iraq's provincial elections revealed that al-Maliki's list had succeeded in overtaking the Shiite religious parties who previously dominated Iraq.

Tehran - Iraq wants Iran's assistance in reconstructing the country, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Sunday at the end of his two-day visit to Tehran.

"We are interested in availing ourselves of Iran's experience and expertise for Iraq's reconstruction and further want expansion of ties in all fields," the website of Iran's state television network IRIB quoted al-Maliki as saying.

The Iraq premier, on his fourth visit to Iran within the last two and a half years, said his talks with Iranian officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, were positive and constructive and voiced optimism towards the future trend of relations with Iran.

Washington - The United States and Iraq are still working on a deal outlining the legal basis for keeping US troops in Iraq after a UN mandate expires at the end of this year, the US State Department said Wednesday.

"Nothing is done until everything is done. Everything isn't done," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "The Iraqis are still talking among themselves. We are still talking to the Iraqis."

Baghdad - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered an investigation Sunday into the killing of four journalists, according to a cabinet statement.

Those who committed this crime must be brought to justice to receive the just punishment they deserve, the statement said.

The journalists worked for Iraqi TV station al-Sharqia.

Unknown gunmen kidnapped them on Saturday in western Mosul, 405 kilometres north of Baghdad, the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency reported.

Baghdad  - Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday said his government and the United States have agreed to the end of 2011 as the deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

"After 2011 no foreign soldiers will no longer be in Iraq," al-Maliki told a gathering of leaders of Iraq's Bani Lam tribe.

Iraq has insisted on a timeframe for the withdrawal of US troops in ongoing negotiations for a security agreement between the two countries.

The Status of Forces Agreement would establish a legal basis for the presence of US soldiers in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expires end of this year.