BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has rejected a provincial election law just a day after it was adopted by parliament, a move that is almost certain to mean a delay in municipal polls due in October.

"The president does not accept a law like this, a law that 127 deputies voted on and which does not represent even half of the parliament," his Talabani's office said in a statement.

Iraq's 275-member parliament adopted the law in a vote on Tuesday that was boycotted by Kurdish lawmakers and some Shiite MPs.

"The president has confidence that the Presidency Council will also not pass this law," the statement said.

The three-member council, comprising President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, Shiite Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi and Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, has the right to veto parliamentary legislation.

The law would allow voting in the country's 18 provinces later this year, originally scheduled for October 1. But it now appears almost certain the elections will be delayed.

A delay would be a blow to Washington and the outgoing administration of President George W. Bush, which sees the elections as a key step toward national reconciliation among Iraq's divided communities.

Parliament's main Kurdish bloc which has 54 members in the assembly and some lawmakers from the powerful Shiite Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council boycotted the vote, raising expectations that the Presidency Council would reject the law.

But some MPs charged that the ballot was carried out in secret, violating parliamentary bylaws.

The Kurds in particular have opposed the bill because of disputes over how to constitute the provincial council of Kirkuk, the northern oil province claimed by both the Arabs and Kurds.

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