The vote brings Iraq closer to ending months of political turmoil following the March 7 election, which failed to produce a clear winner. It also paves the way for broader Sunni participation in the emerging government, headed by Shiite incumbent Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki.

At the start of the session, Al-Maliki told lawmakers he would announce his new Cabinet on Monday — five days before a constitutional deadline. Parliament must then approve the candidates for 36 ministries, three deputy prime ministers and at least two vice presidents before the government can get to work.

Parliament voted 109-61 to allow former lawmaker Saleh Al-Mutlaq and two other Sunnis to return to political jobs.

Al-Mutlaq, an Al-Maliki critic and member of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya political coalition that won the most seats in the March vote, is expected to take a government post instead of rejoining the legislature.

Iraqiya spokesman Haidar Al-Mullah said Saturday's decision sought to assure Sunnis they will not be sidelined in the new government.

"What has happened today is the starting point for more national reconciliation," Al-Mullah said.

Al-Mutlaq was the most prominent of hundreds of candidates who were barred from the elections after a panel said they were loyalists to Saddam's outlawed Baath Party.

Their blacklisting, part of a controversial process to weed Baathists from government, was seen as a thinly veiled attempt to bar Sunnis from returning to power.

Ahmed Chalabi, the head of the de-Baathification panel, said lifting the ban on Al-Mutlaq and the other politicians was made possible by a decision last month by Iraq's political parities to abolish the vetting commission entirely within two years.

"These politicians have the right to assume posts in the executive authority or in the government but not in the legislative authority or the Parliament,» Chalabi said.

Shiite lawmaker Sami Al-Askari told The Associated Press that lifting the ban was Al-Maliki's attempt to show he supports a power-sharing deal among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds that was struck last month. It "creates an atmosphere for participation in the government," he said.

However, many Shiite lawmakers who dominate the 325-member Parliament sat out the vote, remaining in the building's cafeteria as the legislative session began Saturday morning.