Iraq's parliament has postponed a vote for a new president after adjourning for the day.

The parliament was expected to elect a new president at the session but decided to put the vote off until July 24.

There are dozens of contenders to replace Jalal Talabani, who is at the end of his second term.

There is an unofficial agreement that the Iraqi president will be Kurdish since the parliamentary speaker -- elected last week -- is a Sunni Muslim and the prime minister a Shi'ite Muslim.

The international community has put pressure on parliament to quickly elect new officials, more than three months after parliamentary elections.

A new Iraqi government faces its most serious crisis in years with militants of the Islamic State (formerly the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) controlling large parts of northern and western Iraq.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, and dpa