BAGHDAD, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki warned that failure in concluding security deal between Baghdad and Washington by the end of the year could cause political crisis, state-run al-Sabah newspaper reported on Thursday.

    "If the security agreement was not signed by the end of the year, it would lead to a critical political situation and would be embarrassing to both Baghdad and Washington," the report quoted Maliki as saying.

    The two countries are currently negotiating a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that would grant the U.S. troops among other things a legal basis after the UN mandate expires at the end of this year.

    "The U.S. negotiators requested 10 to 14 days to respond to our demands and the time is over now and the American negotiators have not responded yet," Maliki told a group of Iraqi television journalists late on Wednesday.

    "If they meet our demand, the deal will be signed and would be sent to the parliament for approval, but if they refuse our demands, it could lead to new negotiations," he said.

    According to Maliki there is still a dispute over two issues, which are an accord on a deadline for U.S. troops withdrawal and granting immunity to American soldiers in Iraq.

    Maliki also said that the United States had agreed tentatively that the deadline of the U.S. troops pull out would be by the end of 2011.

    Earlier, U.S. President George W. Bush rejected setting a timetable for pulling troops out of Iraq, but he spoke of a general "time horizon" to withdraw from Iraq.

    However, U.S. President George W. Bush said last week that he will withdraw some 8,000 U.S. troops from Iraq earlier next year, leaving about 138,000 deployed in the war-torn country.

    The U.S. embassy in Baghdad clarified that the United States and Iraq are working on two kinds of agreements, one is the Strategic Framework Agreement (SFA) and the other is Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).

    If the two sides fail to reach agreement, Baghdad could seek a further extension of the UN mandate of the multi-national forces in Iraq, even though it has said the current extension is the last.