An official of Iraq's electoral commission said on Tuesday that the final results of the country's landmark elections would not be ready until early January after completing investigations over irregularities.

"The final results won't be ready and ratified until a few days into next January after completing the investigation into all complaints," Farid Ayar told reporters at a Baghdad news conference.

More than 1,000 complaints about irregularities were submitted to the commission, but only 20 of them were described as "very serious", Ayar said.

"We are studying all of these complaints," he said, adding that "they are serious and may change the final results."

Earlier in the day, the Sunni Arab coalition and Iraq's former prime minister Iyad Allawi's coalition said they have reservations on the partial results of the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections announced by the country's electoral commission.

The Iraqi electoral commission announced the partial results of the Dec. 15 elections on Monday, which showed that the Shiite coalition won most of the votes in Baghdad and other Shiite provinces. 

(Xinhua News Agency December 21, 2005)