( dpa ) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki raised a new temporary flag, inscribed with "God is great" in Kufic, an ancient form of Arabic script, on top of the cabinet building Tuesday, media reports said.
The move was requested by Iraq's Kurdish minority, which felt that the old flag was associated with the regime of former dictator Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi News Agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) said the new flag would be raised for a year, after the Iraqi parliament had approved the change in its design.
The old flag was red, white and black, with three stars and the words Allahu Akbar (God is great) written in the centre against a white backdrop.
In December, 110 members out of the 165 members of the Iraqi parliament agreed to adopt a new design, in which the three stars were removed from the middle and "God is great" was written in Kufic script.
Meanwhile, a media spokesman of the Kurdish parliament said the new flag would not be raised in Kurdish Autonomous Region before the parliament approved it next week, VOI reported.