BAGHDAD -- Iraqi lawmakers passed a long-stalled election law late Sunday, reaching a last-minute compromise in negotiations that dragged out most of last week and threatened the timing of next year's parliamentary polls.

Lawmakers agreed Sunday on the key sticking point -- how the vote will be held in the oil-rich area of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, which is claimed by Sunni Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds.

"We didn't get everything we wanted, but at least it's done now," said Fryad Rawandoozi, spokesman for the Kurdish bloc.

Despite the eleventh-hour agreement, Iraq's election commission said Sunday that it still didn't have enough time to prepare for the January 2010 vote. The commission can't delay the poll unilaterally, however, and Parliament's agreement appears to have put the election back on track.

In the agreement hammered out over Kirkuk, eligible voters will be determined by 2009 voter-registration records, a condition supported by the Kurds. But a technical committee will be set up to review the votes. If there are a certain number of irregularities, the elections will be repeated in a year, a condition pushed by the Arabs and Turkmen.

"We are happy that the vote can go forward now," said Rasheed al-Azzawi, a lawmaker from the largest Sunni Arab bloc.

The Kirkuk issue for weeks had prevented lawmakers from agreeing to legislation that would govern how the national elections will be held. Many Kurds who had been kicked out of Kirkuk under the Saddam Hussein regime returned after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Ayad al-Sammaraie, speaker of Parliament, after Sunday's vote. Associated Press

That has prompted fears from Arabs and Turkmen, who say that many of those Kurds aren't legitimately from Kirkuk and were brought there by Kurdish politicians to boost their numbers.

Because of the delay in passing the law, the elections will likely be held on Jan. 23 instead of the original date of Jan. 16, lawmakers and commission members said.

The Iraqi constitution says the polls must be held by the end of January, so a one-week delay wouldn't violate that condition.

U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill, who spent a few hours at Iraq's Parliament on Sunday, said such a delay wouldn't affect the U.S. withdrawal timetable.

U.S. officials have watched the parliamentary deliberations closely. A U.S. military drawdown is set for next year. The number of American forces is slated to drop to 50,000 by next August from about 120,000.

But how quickly that pullout can occur will largely be determined by whether the elections are successful.

"It was absolutely pivotal to the Iraqis to come to an agreement and I'm pleased that they were able to do that," Mr. Hill told reporters.

Write to Gina Chon at