Iraq's parliament postponed to Monday an emergency session called to debate a decision to allow hundreds of candidates linked to Saddam Hussein's Baath party to compete in next month's elections.

Called by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the session had been scheduled to be held at 4:00 pm (1300 GMT) on Sunday but would now reconvene at 1:00 pm (1000 GMT) on Monday, speaker Iyad al-Samarrai said.

Samarrai said the delay was because lawmakers had not yet been handed a report from the seven-judge panel that reinstated the previously blacklisted candidates.

"The meeting of today was called by the prime minister, but we did not receive the judicial report," he said, adding: "We will wait and we will meet again tomorrow."

A parliamentary official said only 75 of the country's current total of 275 MPs were in the chamber on Sunday.

Campaigning for the March 7 vote has already been postponed for a week due to the dispute after a panel of judges said about 500 people accused of ties to the war-torn country's former regime could after all run for office.

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