A final draft of a military pact governing US forces in Iraq will be presented to the war-torn country's highest authorities tomorrow.
The draft will now be considered by the Political Council for National Security, a strategic body which includes the president, the prime minister and the chiefs of all political parties.
The long-awaited pact will allow US forces to stay in Iraq beyond the end of this year, when a UN Security Council mandate enacted after the US-led invasion in 2003 expires.
Earlier US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Baghdad to discuss the future of US forces in Iraq.
US President George W Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki agreed in principle last November to sign a Status of Forces Agreement in Iraq by the end of July, but controversy has delayed the arrangement.
The proposed pact has drawn sharp criticism from Iraq's various political factions.
Iraqi politicians have bristled at the idea of a continuing defence pact with the US, but have also said they are on track to concluding an arrangement.
Baghdad has also expressed reservations about what powers the US military should continue to hold to detain Iraqi civilians and what immunity US troops should have from Iraqi law.
The White House has so far refused to be locked into a fixed date for withdrawing US combat troops, but has suggested a series of target dates for giving Iraqis control over security in different parts of the war-torn country.
