Baghdad- Iraqi officials and parliamentarians are to inaugurate the country's new parliament building relocated outside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone compound for the first time since the 2003 US-led invasion, an Iraqi official said Saturday.

The inauguration is to take place Sunday, the independent Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency reported.

The move is seen as yet another sign that security in Iraq is improving steadily. A drop in violence to a four-year low, analysts believe, made the move possible.

Numerous government offices and foreign embassies are inside the sprawling Green Zone.

London, Aug. 9 : A deal that would establish a timeline for U. S. combat troops to withdraw from Iraq is not as close as recent reports would indicate, a senior U. S. official said on Friday.

"We don''t have a deal yet," the official from the U. S. Embassy in Baghdad said.

"Every time it looks like it''s in shape, it takes another twist and turn," the official said on the condition of anonymity because the discussions are ongoing.

Baghdad - The Iraqi embassy in Cairo is to start repatriating free of charge Iraqi refugees on Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's private jet, according to the Iraqi pro-government newspaper al-Sabah.

"Al-Maliki gave the green light to such flights after the Embassy reported to him that the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has for months stopped financially supporting flights from Egypt to Iraq leaving dozens of Iraqi families stranded," al-Sabah quoted Iraqi councilor in Cairo Nizar Mohammed as saying.

The councilor said the first flight will include 60 families totalling 250 passengers, and that there will be a weekly flight to help airlift the growing number of people wanting to return to Iraq.

New York - The high price of oil will allow the Iraqi government to rack up a budget surplus of 79 billion dollars by year's end, a report by the Government Accountability Office, quoted in Wednesday's New York Times said.

The report by the US federal oversight agency estimates that Iraqi oil revenue from 2005 through the end of this year will amount to at least 156 billion dollars, but that the government was spending a pittance on reconstruction projects that were still being funded by US taxpayers.

The report is likely to increase the debate in the US about the continuing cost of reconstruction, costing some 48 billion dollars since 2002.

London, Aug. 5 : The British defence forces were prevented from participating in a battle for the Iraqi city of Basra thanks to a secret deal between their government and the notorious al-Mahdi militia.

The Times quotes American and Iraqi officers who took part in the assault as saying that 4000 British troops – including elements of the SAS and an entire mechanised brigade – watched from the sidelines for six days because of an “accommodation” with the Iranian-backed group.

US Marines and soldiers had to be rushed in to fill the void, fighting bitter street battles and facing mortar fire, rockets and roadside bombs with their Iraqi counterparts, they added.

Baghdad - Three people were killed and five injured when a bomb went off in a cafe in Iraq's Hillah province, witnesses said Monday.