Iraq's parliament has adjourned for a month-long break after failing to reach agreement on a provincial election law, viewed as a key political reform.
An initial draft of the law faced strong opposition from Kurds, who rejected its plans for power-sharing in the ethnically-mixed city of Kirkuk.
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MPs will continue to hammer out a deal during the recess, the speaker said.
The Iraqi electoral authorities have previously warned that delaying adoption of the law will make it impossible to hold the elections this year.
Polls had been scheduled for 1 October.
The BBC's Crispin Thorold in Baghdad says the provincial elections were meant to be a moment of national reconciliation, but drafting the law to govern them has exposed one of the great fault lines in Iraqi politics.
Iraqi Kurds believe they should control oil-rich Kirkuk, which has a Kurdish majority but which lies outside their semi-autonomous northern enclave.
The city's ethnic Arabs and Turkmen say it should be under the control of the central government.
The US views the elections as a way of reconciling Iraq's rival ethnic and religious communities by redistributing power at a local level.
The UN has proposed a plan which would delay a vote on the city and allow the provincial elections to take place elsewhere at the allotted time.
Parliament initially adopted a draft provincial election law in July, despite a boycott by Kurdish and some Shia Muslim MPs.
But the three-man presidency council, headed by President Jalal Talabani, who is Kurdish, sent the legislation back to MPs for reworking.
(BBC)
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