Iraqi national conference on Tuesday delayed a scheduled vote for a 100-member new interim legislature, said an official of the event's preparatory committee. 

Fuad Maasum, head of the committee, told a news conference that the vote has been postponed until Wednesday.

"It's getting too late because if we stay here they will not let us leave the building after midnight," he said.

Some independent delegates criticized the conference, saying the candidates were picked by the US-backed interim government and most members were chosen long ago in secret.

However, Massoum, a Kurdish politician and former exile, insisted that the process had been fair.

Iraqi national conference opened in central Baghdad on Sunday.

Considered a key step on the road to democracy, the conference is expected to choose 100 persons to form an interim National Assembly to take responsibilities until the holding of the direct general elections next January.

The assembly will be responsible for advising the government, reviewing the policies it follows, forming committees, and objecting to some of the decisions of the interim government, through the approval of two thirds of the members.

It will also be responsible for appointing alternative leadership in case one of the leaders dies or resigns, and it will approve the budget for the Iraqi government for 2005.

(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2004)