BAGHDAD, June 17, 2008 (AFP) - Iraq will move its parliament out of the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad to the hall where Saddam Hussein's assembly used to hold its sessions, a top official said on Tuesday.
Deputy speaker Sheikh Khalid al-Attiya said that from September 1 parliament would conduct its proceedings in the National Assemby hall in Baghdad's Al-Allawi district where the Saddam-era legislature held its sessions.
"The speakers' committee visited the former parliament building and found that it can be used as the assembly's venue in the future," Attiya told AFP.
"The committee decided to transfer parliament to the old building from September 1."
The move to shift parliament outside the Green Zone, the seat of most Iraqi government offices as well as the US embassy, is seen as the fruit of recent security improvements in the Iraqi capital.
The National Assembly hall was burnt and looted in the immediate aftermath of the overthrow of Saddam's regime in April 2003 but has since been reconstructed.
The 275-member Iraqi parliament currently holds its sessions in a former convention centre inside the Green Zone.
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