A coalition of Iraq's main two Kurdish parties has moved into second place behind a Shia Islamist alliance in the vote count following the last week's elections.
Partial results released today from polling centres in 13 of Iraq's 18 provinces show the Shia alliance has around 2.3 million votes, with the Kurds winning around 1.1 million.
A bloc led by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has around 620,000.
Iraq's election commission says the partial results do not necessarily give a clear picture of the final distribution of the votes.
The count includes figures for two of Iraq's three Kurdish-ruled northern provinces, and also several southern mainly Shia provinces.
The Shia alliance is widely expected to win by far the most votes in the election, with the Kurds second and Mr Allawi's bloc tipped to come third.
