Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq 

     BAGHDAD, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- An Iraqi Shiite lawmaker said Wednesday that the parliament would hold a referendum over the security pact with Washington, meeting demand presented by Sunni Arab earlier.

    "The political blocs accepted the Sunni Arab demand to hold referendum by the end of July about the security agreement," Khalid al-Asadi, a lawmaker from the ruling Shiite alliance told reporters.

    "It is expected that the approval on the agreement would include the decision of holding the referendum," Asadi said.

    The parliament is expected to convene in the coming hours to decide whether to accept or reject the agreement, which will give the U.S. military presence in further three years.

    On Tuesday, the Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF), a major Sunni parliamentary bloc, asked for a referendum on the security agreement with the United States and a larger role in politics one day before the parliament's vote on the pact.

    Abdul Kareem al-Samarraie, a senior member in the IAF threatened that his bloc will not attend the voting on the agreement at the parliament if their demands were not met.

    Meanwhile, Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, who is head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest member of the IAF, also issued a statement, calling to put the pact to a referendum.

    He noted that it is the only way to achieve Iraq's national interest.

    Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has rallied the support of the largest Shiite party union and the Kurdish group, which have combined 136 members of the 275-seat parliament. The situation makes a simple majority passage very likely despite the opposition of the IAF, which has 44 seats.

    However, Iraq's revered Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has said he wants a broad support of the pact.