UPDATE 2-British troop vote delayed in Iraq parliament

(Adds parliament adjourning until Tuesday, paragraph 4)

By Waleed Ibrahim

BAGHDAD, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Approval of a measure that would allow troops from Britain, Australia and some other nations to stay in Iraq after a U.N. mandate expires at year's end fell hostage on Monday to a political row in Iraq's parliament.

Parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani suspended the body's regular session until Jan. 7 after deputies demanded he stand down, said an official in the office of Khalid al-Attiya, the deputy speaker.

At the same time, 54 lawmakers called for a special session that could determine whether Mashhadani, a former doctor and Sunni politician who some lawmakers say insulted them in a recent session, is replaced, said Abdel Muhsin al-Sadoun, a Kurdish lawmaker.

By evening, discussions between political leaders were unable to break the impasse over Mashhadani. Hashim al-Taie, a Sunni Arab deputy, said parliament would reconvene on Tuesday.

The fracas raised doubts over whether Iraq would be able to approve in time a measure allowing Britain to keep its 4,100 troops in Iraq until the end of July, and also covering troops in Iraq from Australia, Estonia, El Salvador, Romania and NATO.

The presence of those troops is authorised by a U.N. mandate which expires at the end of December.

On Saturday, lawmakers rejected a draft law that would have permitted their continued presence, arguing that foreign relations required not legislation but treaties or agreements with individual countries.