Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's top political leaders met in the country's Kurdish north on Monday as part of intensified talks between the groups to try and break the more than eight-months' deadlock to form a government.
Described by some of the leaders as "historic," the meeting is the first such public gathering of the politicians including the two main rivals -- Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi -- since the March 7 elections.
The opening addresses of the three-day talks in Irbil -- called for and hosted by the Kurdish Regional Government's President Massoud Barzani -- were broadcast live on state TV and other Iraqi channels.
Last month, Barzani put forward an initiative for the various blocs to hold round-table talks aimed at speeding up the formation of a new government.
Over the past week, representatives of the blocs have been meeting daily to try and reach a power-sharing agreement.
In the March election, al-Maliki won 89 seats but lost to former Prime Minister Allawi's bloc, which received 91 seats. A 163-seat majority out of 325 seats is needed to form a government. The two leaders since have been jockeying for power.
Leading up to Monday's meeting, officials had said they were close to completing an agreement, but remarks made by a number of the leaders indicated that they have yet to address key sticking points that remain unresolved ahead of this week's parliament session.
Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a leading member of Allawi's bloc who described the situation in the country as a "crisis," was critical of the meetings preceding Monday's talks. He said officials had not tackled any of the contentious issues and left them all to the leaders to resolve in a few days ahead of a parliament session on Thursday.
Allawi said the talks have reached some but not all the results envisioned.
CNN
