Iraq's president has asked the newly elected parliament to convene for the first time since inconclusive elections failed to produce a new government, a presidency official has said.
"The president [Jalal Talabani] decided that the parliament will meet on Monday, June 14," Nasir al-Ani, the head of the Iraqi presidency's office, told the AFP news agency on Tuesday.
Once parliament is opened, Iraq's constitution states that MPs must select a speaker for the council of representatives, and then choose a new president.
The president will then give the leader of the largest bloc in parliament 30 days to form a government.
Iraq's parliament has not convened amid the political uncertainty that followed the March 7 polls.
Iraq's Supreme Court ratified the results of the general election on June 1, confirming initial figures which put former prime minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqiya bloc ahead, followed closely by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's State of Law Alliance.
The court has decided, however, that a coalition agreed before parliament's first meeting would gain primacy over Iraqiya if it held more combined seats.
Earlier this month, State of Law and the Iraqi National Alliance, led by Shia Muslim groups, announced they would form a post-election coalition, leaving them just short of a majority, though they have yet to formalise the arrangement.
"We will be presented in the first session of the parliament as a single bloc," Haider al-Abadi, a spokesman for the Dawa Party, the lead party in the State of Law alliance, told Reuters.