BAGHDAD: Iraq's second general election since Saddam Hussein was overthrown will be held on March 6, almost six weeks later than mid-January as originally planned, officials said on Tuesday,

The announcement came two days after MPs finally struck a last-minute deal to get the poll back on track, but the news was overshadowed by a series of five massive car bombs that killed 127 people and wounded 448 in Baghdad.

Months of protracted negotiations over a law governing the vote had thrown arrangements for the ballot into chaos.

The date was agreed after the presidency council, made up of President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies, met electoral commission officials.

The election, which will fall on a Saturday, is seen as a crucial step towards consolidating Iraq's democracy and securing a complete US military exit by the end of 2011, as planned.

It had been originally slated for January 16 but was delayed because of disagreements over the electoral law.

"It was agreed that Saturday, March 6, 2010, is the appropriate time to conduct these elections," said a statement quoting Nasser al-Ani, Talabani's chief of staff, on the president's website.

A senior election official earlier told AFP that March 6 had been chosen because February 27, a date mooted by the United Nations, clashed with an important Shiite religious ceremony.

"We have no problem holding it on the 6th," said Qassim al-Abboudi, a commissioner of Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission.

Under the new electoral law -- hailed by Washington as a "decisive moment for Iraq's democracy" -- the number of MPs will increase from 275 to 325, including three additional ones for provinces in the northern autonomous region of Kurdistan.

From the total, eight seats will be allocated to minorities, including Christians, and seven to smaller parties which win national support but not enough votes to gain representation at provincial level.

Kurdish parties previously expressed concern that their allocation in the original law had not risen above that agreed for the last general election in 2005, while predominantly Shiite and Sunni Arab provinces had seen increases.

The new law sidestepped a veto that Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, had threatened, and came just minutes before a midnight deadline for him to block the legislation.

Hashemi vetoed a previous version of the law last month, throwing poll preparations into disarray.

US diplomats, notably Washington's ambassador to Baghdad Christopher Hill, had pushed MPs to pass the law, seeking to avoid delays to the planned pullout of tens of thousands of American troops in 2010.

The United States has 115,000 soldiers in Iraq, but that figure will drop to 50,000 next year as all of its combat troops are pulled out before a complete withdrawal by the end of 2011.

The threat of political violence linked to the election is a major concern for the Baghdad government and US military. Similar attacks to those on Tuesday in Baghdad in August and October killed more than 250 people.

"We believe that there will be an attempt to conduct more attacks between now and the election," General Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq, said in November.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called Tuesday's attacks a "cowardly" attempt "to cause chaos... and hinder the election," and said they were deliberately timed following the approval of the new electoral law.