Kurdish minister: 'Iraq is a failed state'

Iraq's new parliament is due to reconvene on Tuesday in another attempt to agree on a unity government.

Kurdish MPs withdrew from Iraq's central government last week after Prime Minister Nouri Maliki accused the Kurds of harbouring extremists.

Speaking to the BBC, the foreign minister of Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan called on Mr Maliki to step down.

Falah Mustafa Bakir said post-Mosul Iraq needed a new government and leadership.

The northern city of Mosul was taken by Islamist militants Isis in an attack that took the Iraqi army and leadership by surprise.

Mr Bakir also said that it was time for the region of Kurdistan to separate from Iraq and be an independent state.

He was speaking to the BBC's Shaimaa Khalil in the region's capital Irbil.