BAGHDAD: Iraq's premier has convened parliament for Sunday to debate what his government branded an "illegal" decision to reinstate election candidates with alleged links to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had sought the extraordinary session from parliament speaker Iyad Samarrai "to study the decision of the seven judges" who reversed the disqualifications, state television said.

The electoral commission announced on Wednesday that the judges had ruled that around 500 candidates barred from Iraq's March 7 general election could stand after all.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh in a statement Thursday labelled the ruling "illegal" and "unconstitutional."

The blacklist sparked tensions between the country's Shiite majority and its Sunni Arab former elite, alarming the White House and the United Nations which both expressed concerns about the election's credibility in recent weeks.

It was compiled last month by an integrity and accountability committee responsible for ensuring that individuals from the former regime do not take part.

A senior election official told AFP on Wednesday that the barred candidates, who include people accused of membership of Saddam's outlawed Baath party, can take part in the vote, subject to a post-ballot appeals procedure.

"They have the right to run in the election," said Hamdiyah al-Husseini from the war-torn country's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC).

"The appeal court will look at their file after the election," and if they find them to have links to Saddam's outlawed Baath party, "they will be eliminated," she said.

Dabbagh, however, said the government vehemently opposed the decision.

"The government underlines the importance of respecting Iraq's judicial and constitutional mechanisms to ensure that the rule of law applies to all," he said in the statement.

"Delaying the application of the (electoral) law on integrity and justice until after the elections is illegal and unconstitutional.

"The appeal decision goes beyond its powers because it is a duty to enforce the law on integrity and justice," Dabbagh added.

The law on integrity and justice was adopted January 14, 2008 to replace the de-Baathification Committee, established by the Americans immediately after the US-led invasion in 2003.

It excluded thousands of Saddam-era employees lose their jobs, before many of them joined the insurgency that followed the invasion.

As well as Baathists, the blacklist, which includes both Shiites and Sunnis, covered alleged members of Saddam's once deadly Fedayeen (Men of Sacrifice) militia and Mukhabarat intelligence division.

Baath party membership was essential for obtaining promotion in Iraq's omnipotent public sector during the dictator's rule.

A process of de-Baathification was adopted by Washington diplomat Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), following the invasion.

US Vice President Joe Biden proposed the disqualifications be deferred until after the election during a visit to Baghdad in January at the height of the crisis over the blacklist, according to President Jalal Talabani's office.