BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN)  -- After heated arguments, the Iraqi parliament turned down the first draft of a bill Saturday that would have allowed foreign troops, including British forces, to remain in Iraq after the U.N. mandate expires on December 31. A British soldier attends an Iraqi army training session Thursday in Iraq's Basra province. Kurdish legislator Mahmoud Othman said the measure was sent back to Iraqi Cabinet members for reworking before resubmitting it to lawmakers. There is no parliamentary deadline for the measure to pass. The bill does not apply to U.S. troops because the United States last month reached a Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government that calls for American troops to leave Iraqi cities by June 2009, and to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011.
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Measure sent back to Iraqi Cabinet members for reworking, lawmaker says
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It would have allowed foreign troops to remain in Iraq after December 31
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Bill doesn't apply to U.S. troops, who are to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011
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Lawmakers questioned legitimacy of legislation's first reading or raised other issues
@placeholder was the leading U.S. ally during the invasion of Iraq and still has about 4,000 troops based outside the southern city of Basra.